


and another seven hundred and ten

by pommene



Category: New Dangan Ronpa V3: Everyone's New Semester of Killing
Genre: A lot actually, Time Loop AU, everyone shows up but other than rantaro and tsumugi theyre background characters, it takes a bit for tsumugi to become a part but shes there i promise, its the funky time loop au but i use it to make my favorite characters suffer a lil bit, now featuring tsumugi! slfkla, so dont expect much from them for a while, they suffer a lot, what if you were forced to work with the mastermind to get out of a time loop of death lol
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-03
Updated: 2021-02-21
Packaged: 2021-03-13 02:40:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 10
Words: 39,988
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28521027
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pommene/pseuds/pommene
Summary: Rantaro wakes up in his bed after dying in the library. Then he wakes up again. And again. And again.Of everyone in the Academy he could go through this awful loop with, Tsumugi wouldn't of been his first choice. Far from it, actually, but the feeling is pretty mutual.
Relationships: Amami Rantaro & Shirogane Tsumugi
Comments: 34
Kudos: 84





	1. ignorance is bliss but deja vu hurts more

**Author's Note:**

> hello! thanks for uhh clicking on this i guess?? im not very good at notes bc i have a lot to say but i dont want these to be long so here we go:
> 
> first im gonna be honest, im not great at finishing fics and my motivation fluctuates, so updates are gonna be sporadic and i dont know how far ill get with this.
> 
> second this is one of like a million ideas i have flying around my head, but its also my first dr fic so im hoping everyone is in character?
> 
> third this is like. purely self indulgent and i wrote this because i wanted to, so its gonna have a lot of headcanons and possibly hints at ships that i like even though romance is not in any way the focus and probably wont be involved at all really
> 
> thats that, so i hope if you decide to read this you enjoy it!!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> rantaro wakes up.
> 
> and thus begins the loop

Rantaro pulls the bookcase open, revealing the hidden door patterned like Monokuma.  
  
The mastermind's door. One of the fifteen others in the academy used this door to, presumably, make spare Monokumas and do who knows what else.  
  
Unfortunately but not surprisingly, Rantaro couldn't open it, if the card machine next to the door was any indication.  
  
A flash from beside him cut off any opportunity he got to investigate. Why would there be a flash? Was he being watched? Was it a trap? What was going on? Abandoning the hidden door, he reached into the bookshelf the light had come from, attempting to think over the cacophony playing from the monitors.  
  
He saw the shot put ball fall to the floor past his head, rolling to a stop almost peacefully before he could register what just happened. When he checks the floor, he sees the heavy metal ball sat next to his foot, and looks above him to check where on earth it had come from. He couldn't hear much of anything over the horrible music blaring, but he could hear the alarm bells ringing in his mind. The hair on the back of his neck stood up straight, his heart speeds up, and Rantaro realizes a second too late that maybe turning his back on the hidden door--the one that belonged to the mastermind, who definitely wanted them all dead--was not the best idea.  
  
Rantaro tries to spin on his heel to turn around, to face whatever danger was clearly behind him if his instincts were correct. He only manages to turn slightly, to see a flash of blue before something _hard_ slams into the back of his head and the library is filled with the terrible sound of metal against bone. His vision fails him, and he falls.  
  
By the time he hit the carpet, Rantaro was dead on the library floor.  
  
(He doesn't see his killer stagger, their knees giving out from under them, doesn't hear their sharp intake in pain before they, too, collapsed.)  
  
\--  
  
Then, Rantaro wakes up with a gasp of pain.  
  
He vaguely registers his surroundings beyond the fog in his mind and the ringing in his ears and the pouding headache he had. He's in a dorm room, probably his, the survivor perk monopad is under his pillow if the lump he feels is any indication. Just like it had been the past two days at academy, he thought, even though someone definitely had to know about it after-  
  
After what? What happened to him?  
  
He sat up shakily, ignoring the way it makes him feel lightheaded and sick. Reaching a hand up to brush over the back of his head, the exact place there _should_ have been a hole and a whole lot of blood, Rantaro found... nothing. The action made him wince, sure, but there was no hole in his head, and his hair was surprisingly _not_ matted with blood like it should have been if his head was bashed in.  
  
Rantaro runs over scenarios in his head, searching for answers as to why the pain lingered but nothing else did. He briefly wondered if he somehow survived the hit, but that was a ridiculous idea considering several things he'd already confirmed. Besides, he's pretty sure there's not an infirmary anywhere in this school, and he hasn't seen any medical supplies in the warehouse, so treating a head wound, especially one as bad as his clearly was, would be difficult if not impossible. A dream, then? It certainly didn't feel like a dream even now, but that would explain his intact skull. He'd never has a dream quite like that before, one that left him feeling discombobulated and with intense lasting pain, but there was no other explanation so... maybe it was something about the school.  
  
Or maybe he was just going insane, but whatever.  
  
A familiar jingle sounded from the monitors and Monokuma (or his children, but Rantaro was too deep in thought and too focused on _not passing out_ to care) announced the beginning of the day.  
  
The morning announcement...?  
  
Had they managed to get through the time limit? Or was it the day before the limit expired? Rantaro figured it must have been the latter, because the morning announcement was nothing special and surely if they had made it past the time limit motive the bears would be at least a little angry. Or give them another motive. Or something.  
  
He probably should be heading to the dining hall, if only to find out what was happening, but honestly moving sent a wonderful flare of pain through his head, so he just kind of sat there with the lights off and hoped that whatever headache or migrane he had would lessen to a point where he could at least _pretend_ to be okay.  
  
He managed to pull his survivor perk monopad from under his pillow, relieved that it was fine. He didn't know what he'd do if it broke, even though he'd already memorized the map and letter on it. It was good to have it despite that, just in case he ever did trust anyone enough to show them. Not that _that_ was very likely, but just in case, maybe.  
  
A sharp knock on his door sent another wave of pain throughout his skull. Rantaro should probably answer that. He didn't get up.  
  
They knocked again, and Rantaro knew that they wouldn't stop until he answered them, so he rolled himself out of bed and tried in vain to ignore the way his head protested and his skin felt clammy. His breathing hitched, but he shoved his monopad into his pocket and shuffled to the door. Walking was one thing, talking and acting fine was going to be fun. Still, before he opened the door Rantaro took a deep breath and straightened himself, plastering on what he hoped was a relaxed smile and not a grimace.  
  
Kaede's eyes widened when she caught sight of him in the dark, clearly a bit confused but definitely relieved.  
  
"Oh," she exclaimed, "there you are! You didn't show up for breakfast so we were a bit worried!" She grinned and laughed breezily.  
  
Rantaro ran his tongue along the back of his teeth and really hoped that Kaede couldn't tell that he was holding onto the doorframe like it was the only thing keeping him upright (which, in all honesty, it was). Still, the fact that it was Kaede at his door instead of, say, Kokichi was nice. He might have been able to hide his pain from the pianist, but Kokichi was extremely good at spotting lies from what Rantaro could tell. He wouldn't put it past the supreme leader to notice his agony right away and push for information.  
  
"Yeah, sorry, I just slept in a bit," he answered, attempting to keep his voice even.  
  
Kaede chuckled, "I didn't take you for the type! I can wait for you to get ready and walk with you to the dining hall if you'd like. We're all pretty set on getting together, you know?"  
  
Well, great. He didn't really feel up to the trip, and he wasnt sure he could keep down any food right now. But it would look suspicious if he turned her down, so against his better judgment he agreed and told Kaede to wait a bit while he prepared himself.  
  
It took him longer than normal to get dressed and brush his teeth, and he decided to just run a hand through his hair a couple times instead of brushing it. Not long enough to bring any attention to it, if Kaede's unconcerned smile was any indication.  
  
He stuck a hand in his pocket as he left, trying to seem relaxed but really reaching for comfort in his monopads and his room key tucked safely in his pocket. It doesn't help much, but it's something to focus on, and it does help ground him a little, so it's fine. Probably.  
  
It takes Rantaro a moment to realize Kaede's mouth is moving, her hands gesturing wildly as she speaks. Oh. She's talking to him.  
  
"-all a bit on edge with the motive, so breakfast is super important if we're all gonna make it through!" It sounds a but like she's speaking through a pane of glass, but it's fine, it's fine. He just has to keep a smile on his face and keep his body relaxed and act like nothing is wrong, which he's pretty used to doing by now.  
  
"I think we'll find a way out today, if we all work together! I just hope everyone is willing to do so... some of us are less friendly than others."  
  
He hums in response and Kaede keeps talking, asking if he's remembered his talent (no), how he slept (horribly), if he has any ideas about their situation (yes, but he's not about to tell her that), and eventually moves onto easier topics that don't really require his input, like how she's excited to use her lab properly and maybe even play for people if they need comfort. Kaede doesn't notice anything, which means he's doing a fine job acting like every little thing doesn't make him want to curl up and die, which is reassuring.  
  
When they reach the dining hall, Rantaro hesitates for the slightest of moments. There are a lot of generally _loud_ people in this group, which is bound to be a test of endurance considering his headache but he'll manage.  
  
And he's right. Everyone is already sat at the table (with the exception of Kirumi, who gracefully dances around the table with dirty plates and empty mugs in her hands). Miu and Kokichi are arguing about who-knows-what, and Kaito yells greetings when he sees Kaede and Rantaro walk in. Tenko is off to the side, next to Himiko and Angie and Tsumugi, and screams at any male who gets too close. Rantaro feels for the less extroverted of them, like Maki (who glares at anyone approaching her and clearly doesn't want to be there) and Ryoma (who tugs his hat over his eyes and also very clearly wants to run from the dining hall). Kaede moves to sit next to Shuichi, so Rantaro finds a spot near Korekiyo and Gonta, who's trying to get Ryoma to join them. It takes a minute or two, but Ryoma caves and slides next to Gonta and avoids eye contact with any of them. Most everyone has finished eating already, but they all stick around as if waiting for someone to call a meeting.  
  
He brushes off anyone's attempts to ask if he's alright with a smile and the same excuse he gave Kaede. Kirumi gently places a plate of food in front of him that would look delicious if he had an appetite, and the dining hall settles into a relatively comfortable buzz of nerves and excitement. He eats despite the way his stomach twists and the food tastes a little like sandpaper, but it's worth it if it makes people think there's nothing wrong with him.  
  
Kaede does indeed call a meeting, and various people offer input about the time limit, but Rantaro doesn't really pay attention. It's not like he _wants_ to ignore everyone, but every time he tries to listen his head gives another excruciating throb and he wishes everyone would be quiet.  
  
When Maki slips out of the dining hall it's like the flood gates were opened, and one by one more people begin leaving, some calling out a reason, others just silently going on their way. Ryoma mutters an apology to Gonta before scurrying off, and Gonta says he's going to continue looking for bugs (Rantaro wishes the entomologist luck but he has a feeling Gonta's not going to find anything). Korekiyo stays, observing the remaining students with sharp yellow eyes, and as much as Rantaro would love to stay and talk to the masked boy he really can't bring himself to speak up. Instead, he finishes his breakfast and says he's going back to his dorm for a bit to think about things.  
  
He does go back to his dorm, but he doesn't think about anything. He lays down on the bed and falls asleep to the pounding in his head.  
  
\--  
  
It's about four in the afternoon when Rantaro wakes up.  
  
His head isn't throbbing anymore, and he feels a lot less like he's going to faint any minute, which is good. He can form cohesive thoughts at least, so he hops in the shower and thinks.  
  
He'd dreamt of this exact situation, in which later in the day he goes with Kaito and a group of others to the game room for one reason or another. He'd excused himself, saying he had to go to the bathroom (which, if he thinks about it, were dream-Rantaro's last words and that's admittedly really lame), and then had actually gone to the library to check out the secret door to the mastermind's lair. A flash, the shot put ball, blue, and then something smashing down onto his head. Then Rantaro had woken up physically unscathed but feeling like his head was being split open.  
  
There wasn't... a lot to think about regarding that. He was probably just anxious abouts the time limit and his subconscious decided to handle it like that. Thanks subconscious.  
  
The time limit was still in effect. It was the last day, which by now meant that they had just less than six hours until either someone killed, or they all died. (As if Monokuma would let them all die, he thought, before wondering why he felt like that).  
  
He should check out the hidden door before the time limits expires. Maybe in real life, there would be some way to force his way through. After all, he'd never actually seen the door, so his dream could be wrong about a card machine. Of course there wouldn't be an easy way in, because if there was then the mastermind would be really bad at the whole masterminding thing, but he could at least try. He had to do something, if not to try to save everyone then to occupy his mind while 10 pm grew ever closer.  
  
He got ready and returned to the dining hall for a short late lunch/dinner at 6, then accepted when Kaito asked if he wanted to join his little "beat Monokuma" gang at 7:30. They spent a while finding more people to join, but eventually they had a decent sized group and Kaito led them down into the game room. Shuichi ran down with them, asking what they were doing, but Rantaro didn't pay him any mind.  
  
As it turns out, Kaito's brilliant idea is to fight Monokuma when the time limit expires. Almost immediately Maki declares the idea stupid, but Gonta thinks it's good enough and he leaves to the AV room to get in a fighting mood. Rantaro shivers a little when Gonta says that, because even if Gonta is gentle and kind, he's also pretty scary. The music Rantaro remembers from his dream screams through the monitors at exactly nine pm, which makes Rantaro feel a bit uneasy. It's clear the meeting isn't going anywhere at this point, though, because they're all just yelling to be heard over the music and Rantaro finds his head hurting again.  
  
He excuses himself and steps into the library and he thinks this is well beyond deja vu at this point because everything is happening _exactly_ like it did in his dream, and it's all just a bit unsettling because he died in that dream. He moves the bookcase feeling a little like he's not in control of his body, except this time when the flash goes off, he doesn't go towards it. He plants his feet firmly in the ground and stays rooted to the spot in front of the door (which, unfortunately, is exactly the same as his dream too, which means he needs a key card that he doesn't have to get in). He stares at the spot he remembers leaning down and finding a camera, staring there and just waiting, and sure enough a shot put ball falls from the top of that bookshelf and hits the floor in the exact same spot. Huh.  
  
There must be some sort of path, he thinks, to get it to fall in that spot because there's no one up there to drop it down, and there's nowhere it could come from, not like a vent or anything. There _is_ a vent across the room on the same wall, though, and as he's looking up he wonders if the books have always been stacked that neatly. Not that he spent a while looking upward when he first explored the library, but he could've sworn the books on the top of the shelves were just shoved up there haphazardly.  
  
He waits a little longer for his killer to come out, weapon in hand, but the hidden door remains stubbornly closed and no one steps out.  
  
The bookshelf begins to close, and Rantaro would have pulled it to keep it open if the front door to the library hadn't burst open, revealing Shuichi, Kaede, Kaito, and Tenko. The four stare at Rantaro for a minute, clearly confused, before Tenko rushes up to him and suddenly Rantaro is thrown onto the floor, Tenko keeping him pinned to the ground, her knee digging into his back. The camera flashes again, and his student handbook clacks against his room key in his pocket, but thankfully it's not audible over the awful music. His survivor perk is knocked from his hands, but there's no reason the others should check it when they probably think it's just the same monopad they all have.  
  
Yeah, Rantaro thinks to himself, that headache has definitely returned.  
  
From his position on the floor, he sees Shuichi take in the view of the library, Kaito frown deeply from where he stands just a few feet away from Tenko, and Kaede behind them all. The pianist has a strange expression on her face, one that Rantaro can't quite read, that looks like a mixture of confusion, guilt, relief, and anger.  
  
"It was you...?" Kaede asks, her voice barely heard.  
  
When he doesn't answer, Tenko yells, "Hey, degenerate, she's talking to you! You better answer her!"  
  
Eloquently, Rantaro manages to say "Huh?"  
  
"It was you?" Kaede says, louder this time.  
  
"What was me?"  
  
"You're the mastermind!" Kaede sounds so confident now, and all of a sudden Rantaro understands.  
  
_That's why Tenko's knee is digging into my back_ , he thinks, _and why Kaito is looking at me like he wants to punch me. They think I'm the mastermind. They caught me in front of the door I'm not supposed to know about so close to the time limit expiring._  
  
There's no way of knowing for sure without asking, but he realizes that one of them is probably the one who set up the shot put ball trap. A failed attempt to take out the mastermind and end the killing game. Rantaro hadn't really thought about what he'd do if he caught the mastermind, but he definitely didn't plan on killing them. Obviously, someone felt otherwise.  
  
"Well? Are you not gonna defend yourself? Are you really the mastermind?" Kaito asks, and Rantaro registers that he hasn't said anything to Kaede yet.  
  
He tries to give the four a calm smile and finds that its easier than it should be to keep his voice relaxed, " I'm not the mastermind."  
  
"Then why are you here," Shuichi questions, "How did you know about the hidden door?"  
  
_So this is an interrogation, now, huh? I suppose Shuichi_ is _a detective._  
  
"How did _you_ know about it?" Deflection probably wasn't the best idea, but at least it buys him time to formulate an answer. How does he answer that without giving away his second monopad? His gaze follows Shuichi as the raven-haired boy takes down several cameras from the bookshelves--startling a bit for some reason when the flash goes off in his face--and something else from on top of the moving bookcase.  
  
_Probably a sensor of sorts,_ Rantaro thinks.  
  
Shuichi hesitates before answering, "I'd rather you tell me first."  
  
And you know what? That's fair, so Rantaro responds, "I found it while exploring the academy."  
  
"Oh?"  
  
"Yeah, I don't really know what else to tell you. I discovered it by chance, not because I'm the mastermind."  
  
Shuichi's eyes linger for a second on the top of the secret moving bookshelf and the carpet in front of it, and Rantaro understands. Sparing a glance upwards, there's no books on top of that bookshelf like there is with the others, which makes sense because any books would just fall off when the shelf is moved. There's faint tracks in the carpet where the shelf has dragged, unnoticeable unless you know where to look. Shuichi certainly had a detective's eye. The detective walks over to the bookshelf and pries it open, Tenko moving Rantaro slightly so that they arent hit when it swings open. He crouches in front of the card reader and hums.  
  
"Can I check you pockets, Amami?" Shuichi asks.  
  
Rantaro desperately, desperately wants to say no. If his pockets are checked, then they'll find his student handbook and they'll figure out that the monopad he dropped isn't his student handbook and they'll wonder why on earth he had two monopads. His heart rate all but doubles, but Rantaro keeps the smile up on his face. He can't say no, though, because if he does then Shuichi will be even more suspicious of him because to him, why would Rantaro refuse if he was innocent.  
  
Rantaro feels a wave of relief wash over him when the music stops.  
  
Everyone in the library stands a little straighter.  
  
"What time is it?" He doesn't pay attention to who asks.  
  
Oh.  
  
"9:37."  
  
_Oh._  
  
The monitor flashes, and Monokuma's sitting in a chair, laughing and laughing, his red eye gleaming.  
  
_**Oh.**_  
  
"A body has been discovered! Please all gather in Ryoma Hoshi's dorm room!"


	2. well take a breath, cause you'll need it so come on

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> investigation time start!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> an f to our fallen student but don't worry he'll show up again ;)
> 
> investigations are actually pretty hard to write tbh, right up there with trials, but they wont play a huge role in the story so this is likely the only investigation ill have to write in full (and trial, thank god bc trials are so hard but thats for next chapter)
> 
> also id like to point out that i write all this on my phone, so if there's any stupid mistakes that's why

Vaguely, Rantaro knows that Tenko lets go of him and he stands and they all glance at each other. He picks up his survivor's perk.  
  
None of this looks good for Rantaro's innocence, but there are bigger concerns.  
  
A body. Ryoma's dorm room. Killing game started.  
  
He feels nothing but dread as the five of them sprint to the dormitories. They can see those who were in the game room just ahead of them, but no one stops to chat.  
  
The door to Ryoma's room is wide open, and there are people both in the room and standing outside it. He can't see the body, but a quick head count tells him all he needs to know. Still, he pushes through the crowd and into the dorm room, and his mind stops functioning.  
  
Ryoma Hoshi sits against the wall in a pool of blood, a knife stabbed deep in his stomach.  
  
There's so much blood all over Ryoma that it's hard to tell where it's coming from.  
  
Someone behind him vomits. Monokuma appears from thin air, laughing, and Rantaro thinks that someone here murdered Ryoma. Someone here started the killing game. Someone here murdered Ryoma.  
  
"Well well well, just as I was getting worried we'd have to kill you all brutally!" Monokuma cheers in a voice all too happy for the situation.  
  
"Shut up," someone behind Rantaro says.  
  
"Oho? No can do, one of you lovely students finally snapped! Poor Ryoma and all, but hey, I'm a bear of my word! Sooo, whoever did it, raise your hand, you get to graduate!" Monokuma has one arm raised like he's showing the murderer what to do.  
  
Everyone stops talking, and Rantaro's pretty sure everyone has stopped breathing too, because it's far too silent. People are exchanging glances, glares, looking for the person who was desperate enough to leave that they thought killing someone was acceptable.  
  
No one raises their hand.  
  
The Monokubs pop up with varying degrees of shock that no one was taking advantage of the First Blood Perk.  
  
"Oh come on! This is a free exit I'm offering! I'm rarely this generous y'know, so of ya killed the tennis player then ya better step up!" Still nothing, but now there was confusing in the eyes of his fellow students rather than just pure suspicion. "Reeeeeeally? I guess you _want_ a class trial then? Huh? Is that it? Cause the more I think about it a class trial sounds a lot more exciting than just letting the killer go!"  
  
Rantaro ignores the Monokubs for the most part, but he notes that they're almost as confused as the students are.  
  
"Alright then! A class trial it is, so get to investigating!" And with that, Monokuma vanishes, his kids following.  
  
They all stand there for a while, silently, before Korekiyo speaks up.  
  
"Perhaps... we should begin our investigation?" And it sounds so familiar to Rantaro, the idea of investigating a corpse, for reasons he can't explain, but it also sounds so cruel. Ryoma was dead, and instead of getting time to grieve (not that many of them were that close to Ryoma, but still) or process anything or even get over the shock of seeing a dead body in the first place they were forced to investigate. And if they didn't then they all died.  
  
It was horrible, and absurd, and Rantaro felt a little guilty that he hadn't managed to stop the game before something like this happened.  
  
"Yeah," Rantaro nods, "we should get started. Not just to live, but to avenge Ryoma too."  
  
That gets a few people moving, but Rantaro turns his attention to Ryoma's body. There's blood everywhere, just like before. Rantaro's no expert when it comes to this sort of thing, but he knows enough to be certain that a stab wound to the stomach doesn't generally get blood above the chest. It covers Ryoma's body from his chin to his legs.  
  
 _Truth Bullet #1: The amount of blood._  
  
Ryoma obviously has a stab wound to his stomach, the knife plunged deeply into his body, where it still sits.  
  
 _Truth Bullet #2: Ryoma's stab wound_  
  
Wait... where it still sits? If the knife is still in Ryoma's body, then it shouldn't be oozing blood. The knife would stop the wound from bleeding too much.  
  
 _Truth Bullet #1 Updated_  
  
Looking closely at the knife, it seems to be a regular kitchen knife, which makes sense because Rantaro's not sure there's anywhere else to even _get_ a knife in the academy.  
  
 _Truth Bullet #3: Knife in Ryoma's stomach_  
  
Monokuma pops up next to the body and Rantaro jumps up a little before glaring at the bear.  
  
"Oh, testy testy, I just came to give you all a gift!"  
  
"We don't want anything from you!" Kaito exclaims.  
  
"Yeah, get lost, fucker!" Miu adds.  
  
"Awwww, I'm so sad... My students hate me so much..." The bear pouts and kicks the ground dejectedly, and then immediately springs back up, "but no matter! You can't refuse my gift, so take it!"  
  
Monokuma presses another monopad into Rantaro's hands (and Rantaro knows its because he's closest to the bear, but this also doesn't help his case for not being the mastermind, great) and then disappears again.  
  
Very briefly, Rantaro worries that it's another part of the survivor perk, but the fact that Monokuma said it was for "you all" and gave it to him in front of everyone made him feel better. Turning it on, the words **Monokuma File** flash on screen, as well as a picture of Ryoma and some general information about him. Tapping the next tab, information about Ryoma's death is displayed.  
  
 _-The victim is Ryoma Hoshi, Ultimate Tennis Player_  
 _-The estimated time of death is 9:25 pm_  
 _-The body was discovered at 9:37 pm_  
 _-The victim sustained a stab wound in his stomach, as well as several other deep cuts across his body._  
  
 _Truth Bullet #4: Monokuma File #1_  
  
The time of death was 9:25...? At least there was a time frame to grab alibis for.  
  
"Can I see that?" Shuichi gestured to the Monokuma file. Was there only one? It certainly looked like it, Monokuma only gave him the one. Funny, he could've sworn everyone was supposed to get one. Rantaro wordlessly passed the file over.  
  
He became aware that several people had already left the scene, which was expected because not everyone would really want to be around a body but it made gathering alibis a little harder if he didn't know where people were.  
  
He watched Shuichi lean over Ryoma's body and begin to inspect it.  
  
"The file's truthful at least," the detective muttered.  
  
Taking another sweeping glance of the body, Rantaro noticed something stuck in the blood near Ryoma's body. He crouched down to pick it up, getting his fingers covered in blood in the process, and picked up a piece of paper. Shuichi leaned over to look at it as well.  
  
"It looks like there was writing on it, but we can't read it because of the blood," he pointed out. He was right too, because if Rantaro looked closely he could see a small corner of the paper had graphite on it, and there were indents in the page where the blood hadn't damaged it as much, but it was still unreadable.  
  
 _Truth Bullet #5: Bloodstained paper_  
  
He hears something crash on the ground behind him, and he swivels to find Kokichi standing in front of a cup on the ground.  
  
"What are you doing?"  
  
"Oh, you know, messing with evidence!" Kokichi smirks, pointing to the cup, "I found this on the table all spilled over. All this blood is making me thirsty, so I thought I'd take a sip but the water smells really funny. Ryoma must've drugged it or something, nishishishi."  
  
Shuichi straightens his back, "You shouldn't mess with evidence, Ouma. How exactly did you find it?"  
  
"On the table, tipped ooover! But there was a little water left in it and I don't like being thristy soooo~"  
  
"Ouma..." Shuichi sighs.  
  
 _Truth Bullet #6: Cup of water_  
  
Rantaro made to leave, eager to not be left alone with Shuichi if the detective decides to ask about the library. Standing in the doorframe, he gave one last look over the room. Wait...  
  
Ryoma's room was a mess. Rantaro probably hadn't noticed when he'd first arrived, too focused on Ryoma, but the room was covered in scratch marks and the furniture was misplaced. One of the chairs had been overturned. Signs that a fight had happened...  
  
 _Truth Bullet #7: Signs of a struggle_  
  
When he left he spared a sympathetic smile to Himiko as he passed her. She looked like she was going to faint any second now, leaning on a wall as Tenko rubbed circles on her back. As much as his big brother instincts wanted to comfort the magician, Tenko wouldn't like him approaching them. Besides, he wanted to check the kitchen.  
  
The only people in the kitchen were Korekiyo and Kirumi, and they were conversing in hushed voices over by a cabinet. He gave them a lazy wave.  
  
"Oh, Amami," Kirumi greeted, "I'm glad you are alright."  
  
"Uh, yeah. Are you two doing okay?" For two people who had just seen a body, they looked remarkably fine. Kirumi stood with her hands clasped in front of her, poised as ever. Korekiyo had a hand on his waist and another brushing his chin, but nothing about him really said "I've just seen a dead body and I could die in a couple hours if we don't find the killer". Then again, neither did Rantaro's own relaxed posture.  
  
"We're doing just fine, all things considered. Toujo thought it wise to check the kitchen, and I did not think it was smart to walk around alone."  
  
"That's a good idea..." Rantaro mentally facepalms, they should have left people near to body so that no one could destroy evidence. He'd gotten all he could from the scene, but they couldn't have the killer throwing things away.  
  
"Did you find anything," he asked.  
  
Kirumi nodded, and crouched down to open the cabinet she was near. Inside at the very front of the cabinet were a few bottles of cleaning chemicals.  
  
"Uh... Is something wrong with them?"  
  
"Yes, when I am done with them I always put the chemicals at the back of the cabinet and place buckets and towels in front of them. It is something I learned while serving a master with several young children, as a safety precaution to keep them away from the chemicals. I thought I should do the same here, so that it is harder for someone to use the chemicals for murder. I am certain I had placed them at the back earlier and I had not yet brought them back out, so there is no reason for them to be misplaced now."  
  
"You think someone moved them?"  
  
 _Truth Bullet #8: Cleaning chemicals_  
  
"Can I ask you both something? I'd like to get your alibis while I'm here. When you saw Hoshi, last, too, if you remember."  
  
Kirumi nodded, "Of course. I believe the last time any of us saw Hoshi it was in the dining hall. He had come in for a cup of tea at around 5:30 pm. When he finished his drink he insisted on cleaning it himself, and though it wouldn't have taken me more than a minute to clean it he would not let me. I was cleaning the tables at the time. He left at around 6:30, and told me he was going to his room. He took a small glass of water with him from the kitchen. I've been in the dining hall since then."  
  
 _Truth Bullet #9: Kirumi's Account_  
  
"As for my alibi, at the time of death I was with Toujo and Iruma in the dining hall, eating what we thought was our last meal. Iruma was tinkering with some device. Shirogane had joined us briefly, but left for the bathroom at around 9:10, and did not stay for long once she came back. She left to go to the game room I believe," Korekiyo stated.  
  
 _Truth Bullet #10: Korekiyo's Account_  
  
Rantaro hummed and thanked the two, then checked the knife rack to confirm his theory. As he thought, one of the knives was missing.  
  
"Hey, Toujo? Did you notice anyone take a knife from here?" He asked, looking to the maid.  
  
"Oh? I didn't see anyone take a knife, no. All the knives were here when I checked last. I believe that was around 6 pm."  
  
 _Knife in Ryoma's stomach has been updated_  
  
He didn't really know where else to look, so after thanking the two in the kitchen Rantaro decided to backtrack to the dormitories. Maybe someone there had found something he missed. On his way, he bumped into Angie. Or rather, Angie bumped into him.  
  
"Oh! Amami, just the person God told Angie to speak to!" She grabbed Rantaro's hand in hers.  
  
"It's... good to see you, Yonaga. Did you need me for something?"  
  
"God told Angie you wanted to gather alibis for Hoshi's murder, so she has been seeking you!"  
  
Rantaro smiled easily, "That's right, what's your alibi."  
  
"Oh oh, as you know Angie went down to the game room with Momota, Harukawa, Yumeno, Chabashira, Gonta, and you! Gonta left early on to the AV room, but God is telling Angie there is no way he could have left to kill Hoshi because Gonta was still in the AV room when we all rushed to Hoshi's room! At the time of Hoshi's death, only Angie, Harukawa, and Yumeno were in the game room, because Momota and Chabashira had left to go after you. And Shirogane joined us in the game room before the body was discovered! Angie was in the game room the whole time, until the body discovery announcement! "  
  
That... adds up with everything Rantaro remembers at least, so Angie was definitely telling the truth.  
  
 _Truth Bullet #11: Angie's Account_  
  
"Thanks Yonaga. You wouldn't know anything else about the crime, would you?"  
  
"Angie is sorry that she doesn't. She would ask God but it is His nap time! Angie thinks you should go back to the dormitories though. Ouma is causing problems for Saihara," the artist winked and skipped off towards the academy.  
  
Kokichi was causing problems, huh? That sounds about right. Hopefully he hadn't messed with any more evidence.  
  
Kokichi was crying when Rantaro got to the dormitories. He stepped into Ryoma's room to find the supreme leader curled up in a ball on the floor sobbing. Shuichi looked extremely uncomfortable as he tried to get Kokichi to stop.  
  
Rantaro cleared his throat, and Kokichi jumped up, wiped any remaining tears away, and tacked the green-haired boy in a hug.  
  
"Amami! Shuichi was bullying me! He's so mean to me, tell him to stop!" Kokichi whined into Rantaro's waist.  
  
"Er-"  
  
"Ouma, please stop this. We're supposed to be investigating-" Shuichi sighed before being cut off.  
  
"I don't wanna investigate with you anymore! Amami come on, come with me, take me with you!"  
  
Rantaro chuckled and tousled Kokichi's hair, much to the supreme leader's indignation, "Alright, alright, but you have to stop bothering Saihara-"  
  
"Actually, Amami, can I talk to you for a minute?" Shuichi interrupted. 'No' Rantaro wanted to say.  
  
"Sure, I wanted to ask for your alibi anyway," he said instead, mentally berating himself. Of course Shuichi had an alibi, he was with Rantaro in the library at the time of death.  
  
To his credit, Shuichi didn't think anything of it, "Oh, sure, of course. I was with you, Akamatsu, Momota, and Chabashira in the library. We all got there around 9:11, and we only left when we heard the body discovery announcement."  
  
"Oooohhh, so my beloved detective _and_ Amami have alibis, how convenient!" Kokichi was still hugging Rantaro's waist, and Rantaro found that the supreme leader's grip was actually pretty strong despite how weak the boy looked, because Rantaro couldn't pry the other off of him.  
  
 _Truth Bullet #12: Shuichi's Account_  
  
"Ah, so..." Shuichi shuffled on his feet, "about the library-"  
  
"It's just like I said, I found the door while exploring. I noticed the books on top, that's all," Rantaro firmly stated. Shuichi looked like he was about to argue before deciding against it.  
  
Kokichi removed himself from Rantaro and stared at the two for a moment before grabbing Rantaro's arm and all but pulling him out of the room.  
  
"Come on, don't be boring Amami, I wanna talk to Kiiboy."  
  
"Why?"  
  
"Because he's suspicious!"  
  
They found Kiibo standing alone on the path leading the Shrine of Judgement looking utterly defeated.  
  
"Hey Kiiiiiboy~" Kokichi sang.  
  
"Oh, Ouma," Kiibo sounded awfully done with Kokichi in the three seconds of seeing him, "Are you here to make more robophobic remarks?"  
  
Before Kokichi could start anything Rantaro cut in, "We're gathering alibis for Hoshi's murder. What's yours?"  
  
"Oh well... I am aware it is not a great alibi, but I was alone in my dorm room. I believe Hoshi was in his room as well, which I know also does not help my case. I truthfully did not hear anything odd at all around the time of death, but I decided to check on Hoshi around 9:35 because I had a bad feeling. Ouma must have heard my scream, because he came into Hoshi's room as well and the body discovery announcement sounded. I know my alibi is weak at best, but I am being honest when I say that I did not kill Hoshi! It is against my coding to kill someone," Kiibo said.  
  
 _Truth Bullet #13: Kiibo's Account_  
  
"Woow, Kiiboy, that's really suspicious don't you think?"  
  
"What are you insinuating, Ouma!?"  
  
"That you killed Hoshi, obviously! No one knows what this coding of yours is, so you could be lying~" Ignoring Kiibo's splutters of protest, Kokichi continued on, "and besides, you're a robot so you don't know anything about humans! You probably think humans are weak and frail and deserve death, huh?"  
  
"That is not true at all!"  
  
Rantaro started to drag Kokichi away from the robot in an attempt to quell the impending argument. As they were walking away, the taller boy turned to his companion.  
  
"For all your suspicion on Kiibo, I haven't heard your alibi yet."  
  
"Huh? Are you su-suspicious of m-me?" Tears sprang from Kokichi's eyes as he wailed, "That's so c-c-cruel! How could you, I trusted you, I thought you believed in me! Amami, you're so mean!" Then, like a switch had been flipped, he wiped any remaining tears from his face and calmly said, "That's good, you should be suspicious of everyone. Well, as it turns out, I don't have an alibi!"  
  
Rantaro hummed, but the leader continued anyway, "I was just wandering around, looking for someone to brutally murder. It's a shame someone got to killing before me, but what can you do? Or maybe that's a lie! Maybe I was just wandering around aimlessly because I didn't want to be around you losers!"  
  
 _Not very helpful as far as alibis go_ , Rantaro thought, _but whatever._  
  
Before he could ask for more information, a chime played through the monitors. Monokuma flickered on screen, sat comfortably in his chair.  
  
"Time's up, students! Head to the Shrine of Judgement and you'll be escorted to the trial grounds. If you don't show up, I'll have to punish you, so hurry up!"


	3. im scared, im scared, im scared and when the jury is done, you step back and in trapped in the underworld

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> the trial for ryoma's murderer begins and the students argue for their lives

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i know trials are notoriously difficult to write so i dont feel too bad that this is one of my least favorite chapters but! its here
> 
> i wanted everyone to have a Moment and to talk some but i also wanted everything to make sense in the same convoluted danganronpa way that trials make sense yknow? i also didnt know how to write a few characters' dialogue so if gonta and tenko speak strangely its because im trying to figure out how i want to write their speech patterns. i also didnt include game mechanics at all just bc i couldnt make them work with my writing style
> 
> also i know this is kind of a long note but that you for all the comments????? they are (and were tbh) in no way expected but i get really excited when i see a comment so thank you??? so much??

When everyone gathers in the Shrine of Judgement, there's an energy in the air that Rantaro can only describe as anxious.  
  
Some people like Kaede, Tenko, and Kaito are speaking, attempting to reassure their companions that everything will be fine. Others like Tsumugi and Angie and mumbling to themselves, too quitely for Rantaro to make out what they're saying. Maki, Korekiyo, and Kiibo are stood silently at the back of the pack, frowning slightly as they gaze at the rest. Kokichi is less outwardly anxious than most, especially less than Shuichi who looks like he's about to collapse in a panic, but the supreme leader is bouncing all around, zipping from one area of the Shrine to another. He just couldn't seem to sit still, no matter how many times Miu tells him to "sit the fuck down" or Kirumi attempts to catch him. The constant movement isn't helping anyone. It might be making the nerves worse, actually, because Gonta looks a little sick and trying to follow Kokichi's movements couldn't have helped.  
  
Rantaro just watches silently as the rather... unusual statue of Monokuma moves and reveals a path for them. The elevator is a little uncomfortable with 15 people in it, but Rantaro can't help but feel like there's too much space. Ryoma wouldn't have taken up much room, but his absence is like a void.  
  
The courtroom is decked out in various colors and it's all extremely gaudy. Monokuma rests luxuriously on his throne, and Rantaro feels just a bit glad that he's right in front of the bear, facing away, if only so that he won't have to look at the black and white monster.  
  
Rantaro stands on his podium in the court room and realizes that the adrenaline he'd been running on throughout the investigation has worn off. His back flares in pain and his body aches, probably from when Tenko had slammed him down and dug her knee into his back. He wishes the adrenaline would come back, because you'd think knowing that you could die in an hour or two is what would be considered adrenaline worthy stuff. That being said, he's feeling remarkably... calm about everything. His heart isn't beating erratically, his head is clear for the most part, he's doing so much better than his classmates--some of whom grip their podiums with a desperate ferocity. Ranraro does feel some strange sense of dread when he notices Tsumugi standing next to him. Coupled with the tennis rackets painted over a grey portrait or Ryoma in the shape of an X, and the lingering sense of wrongness he's felt since leaving the game room, he's a bit uneasy for a moment. He shoves that feeling down.  
  
This is a class trial, and there's no place for emotions in this courtroom until they know they've voted correctly. Rantaro intends to to find out who killed Ryoma and survive.  
  
Monokuma opens up with an explanation of the class trial that Rantaro listens very intently to (and by that he means he just kind of ignores Monokuma and wishes he wasn't so close to the bear because it has a very annoying voice). Once Monokuma stops talking, the class is left in silence, staring at each other with suspicion and doubt.  
  
If no one's going to speak up, then Rantaro might as well get things started, "Does anyone have anything they want to start with? It can be anything as long as it's relevant."  
  
"O-oh! Um-" Shuichi stammers.  
  
"Why don't we start with the cause of death? The Monokuma file doesn't actually state what killed Hoshi, and it is rather vague when describing his injuries," Korekiyo states.  
  
Miu raises an eyebrow, "Vague? It doesn't look very vague to me, Shitguji, the fuck are you talking about?"  
  
"No, he's right!" Shuichi says loudly, before he reaches for his hat when everyone looks to him, "Uhm, I just mean, it just says that Hoshi had several deep cuts across his body, and a stab wound in his stomach, but it doesn't say that any of those killed him, or if they were sustained before or after Hoshi was killed."  
  
"H-hee! Of course I knew that, I was just testing you!" Miu squeals.  
  
"Why would Monokuma leave out the cause of death?" Kaito asks, "I thought it was supposed to have all the important facts about the body in it?"  
  
Rantaro finds himself answering, "It's because the cause of death is an important clue to discovering the culprit. Monokuma wants things to be fair, but he also wants us to figure out the answers ourselves. There wouldn't be a point to the trial if we could piece the case together easily." He kicks himself mentally. Why would he say that, and with such certainty? How can he be so certain, this is the first trial.  
  
 _Way to make yourself suspicious, Rantaro, good going._  
  
He notices Kaede and Shuichi peering at him with clearly suspicious gazes, but he also sees Kokichi look at him with interest before turning to check his fingernails.  
  
"If the cause of death is important then we just have to find it, right?" Himiko mumbles, "Nyeh, this is such a pain..."  
  
Angie waves her hand in the air whimsically, "God says the knife in Hoshi's stomach is rather obvious~"  
  
"It came from the kitchen, right?" Kiibo asks.  
  
"There was a knife missing from the knife rack in the kitchen when we investigated," Kirumi mentions.  
  
"Oh oh! I know who the culprits is!" Kokichi jumps in his podium, clapping his hands together.  
  
Immediately, almost everyone's eyes are staring at Kokichi. Rantaro hears various suprised exclamations as he tries to read the leader's expression. Kokichi is smiling and his eyes are twinkling, but something about it looks vaguely malicious. Venomous.  
  
"Yeah! It's really obvious if you think about it, right? The killer is Toujo!"  
  
To her credit, Kirumi's position barely changes at the sudden accusation and the unexpected way her podium moves to the center of the circle. She's incredibly calm for someone who's just been put as suspect #1 for a murder.  
  
"What makes you say that, Ouma?"  
  
Kokichi doesn't respond, instead finding his nails extremely interesting again.  
  
Kaito yells, "What the hell, Ouma?! You can't just-"  
  
"He's right though!" Miu interrupts, "The little shit has a point, miss maid over here is _always_ in the kitchen, she coulda grabbed a knife easily! All she had to do was leave for a bit and boom! Stab the fuck outta Hoshi!"  
  
"That's wrong," Rantaro says, cutting off Kaede who had opened her mouth to add something, "Toujo has a definitive alibi for the time of the murder. She was in the dining hall, isn't that right, Shinguji?"  
  
Said student startles slightly at being addressed, but nods, "Yes, that is true. Toujo was in the dining hall at the time of death, as well as Shirogane and yourself, Iruma. Do you not remember?"  
  
"C-cut the shit, creepo, of course I remember. I was just..." Miu's statement trails off as she all but whispers the last part.  
  
"What was that, whore? I didn't hear you, speak up for the class," Kokichi prompts.  
  
"I said I wasn't fucking paying attention, shitstain! I was building something, I wasn't about to watch these losers get it on-"  
  
"Thank you, Iruma, that's enough," Rantaro stifles a deep sigh. This was going to be a long trial, "Since Toujo has an alibi, she couldn't have stabbed Hoshi."  
  
Kokichi kicks the ground and pouts, "Awww, so I was wrong? But I'm always right..."  
  
Kaede smiles at the supreme leader, "Don't worry, it was a good start!"  
  
Shuichi nods, "On the topic of alibis, maybe we should go through them? It would at least help us get an idea of where everyone was at the time of death."  
  
"Well I already fucking have an alibi, so you can take your pervy gaze somewhere el-"  
  
"Iruma, stop speaking," Korekiyo glares at Miu before exhaling slightly, "but, she is correct. Iruma, Toujo, Shirogane and I were in the dining hall at the time of death. Shirogane did leave shortly after, but she said she was going to check on those in the game room."  
  
"Mhm mhm~" Angie hums, "Shirogane did join us in the game room shortly before the body announcement! Harukawa, Yumeno, and Angie were all in the game room at the time of death! Gonta was with us earlier, but he went into the AV room, and Amami was with us too, but he also left. Chabashira and Momota left to go find Amami, yes, it's true!"  
  
"So... your alibi only actually covers you, Yumeno, and Harukawa?" Shuichi asks the artist.  
  
"Yup yup!"  
  
Kaede glances over to Rantaro for a second before turning back to Shuichi, "I was with you, Momota, Chabashira, and Amami in the library for the time of death and the body discovery announcement, so that's our alibis!"  
  
"Ah!" Kiibo stammers, "I know my alibi is not the best, but I was in my room at Hoshi's time of death."  
  
"Wooow, so Gokuhara is the only one without an alibi, that's a shame!" Kokichi laughed.  
  
"Ouma, you haven't given yours either??" Kaito looks at the smaller boy in confusion, who ignores everyone.  
  
Gonta seemed incredibly distressed, "Gonta not kill anyone, gentlemen not kill! Gonta in AV room watching movie about bugs, Gonta tells truth!"  
  
"God tells Angie it is impossible for Gonta to leave the AV room without Angie knowing-"  
  
"There _is_ another exit to the AV room!" Kokichi loudly interjects.  
  
Shuichi sighs, and Rantaro almost feels bad for the detective because Kokichi was certainly making things harder than they needed to be, "Ouma... the other door to the AV room barely opens. It's stuck, so you would only be able to stick an arm out of it but not walk through. And definitely not someone as big as Gokuhara."  
  
Kokichi smiles and mutters an "I knew that!" before Kiibo speaks up.  
  
"If I may ask, what makes a body discovery announcement go off? It went off right as Ouma walked into Hoshi's dorm room, so..."  
  
"Three people besides the murderer have to see the body, I believe," Rantaro turns to glance at Monokuma, but the bear doesn't say anything so that must be right. Kiibo looks confused for a moment.  
  
"Three? There were only two of us when it went off."  
  
"Can you tell us exactly what happened, Kiibo?" Kaede asks.  
  
"Of course! I wanted to check on Hoshi and ask if he would like to stick together while the time limit grew closer! I figured it was safer in pairs or groups, but when I knocked on his room I recieved no answer. I became increasingly concerned, so I entered without his permission. Strangely, the door was unlocked. That is when I saw his body, and Ouma must have heard my cry and come running. When he saw the body, the announcement played, but that was only two."  
  
"So someone else saw the body before you. Someone innocent," Rantaro concludes, "And it clears Ouma of suspicion, because he would have to be innocent for the announcement to be triggered when he saw the body."  
  
"Yeah! Besides, if I was gonna murder someone I would've chosen someone like Kii-"  
  
"But why wouldn't that person have ran to get someone?" Korekiyo asks, "Most people would not keep such information to themselves if they were truly innocent."  
  
From his podium, Rantaro sees Shuichi's eyes widen and his hand cup his face. The detective was clearly deep in thought, and Kaede was similar, staring into the distance. Around the circle, students had begun eying each other, trying to figure out who on earth would find a body and not tell anyone about it. 

  
"I think there are more elements to Hoshi's death than we think," Rantaro finds himself saying, crossing his arms in thought. When he finds himself the center of attention he sighs, "There are still things that don't add up, so maybe we shouldn't think of anything as concrete just yet."  
  
Tenko glares at him, "What are you saying, degenerate? Just tell us what you're thinking!"  
  
"You're saying we shouldn't think of the knife as the cause of death, right?" Kaede says, "Because we haven't gotten anywhere with that idea."  
  
Rantaro nods and smiles at the pianist, "We found some things in the investigation that would point towards a different cause of death. Right, Toujo?"  
  
"Ah, that's correct. It may be unrelated, but the cleaning chemicals I placed in the kitchen cupboards were misplaced."  
  
"Cleaning chemicals can be used to poison someone," Maki says blankly.  
  
Rantaro gets a sick feeling deep in his stomach, one he's unable to quell. Poison, and the one remaining person who doesn't have an alibi...  
  
Something Ryoma had said in Rantaro's dream (dream? he's becoming increasingly convinced it was more than just a dream) struck him, and the sick feeling grew tenfold.  
  
He speaks a little louder than he means to, cutting off Kokichi from his newest bit of nonsense, "Toujo, didn't you say Hoshi took a glass of water with him when he left the dining room? Around six thirty, right?" At the maid's confirmation, he continued, "In Hoshi's room during the investigation, there was a glass of water spilled over on the table. Ouma found it, and said it had a funny smell to it."  
  
"Did I?"  
  
"You did," Shuichi says, finally pulling the hand away from his mouth, "I was there, too."  
  
"Oh! Well, what do you know, so I did!"  
  
"Couldn't little miss maid still have done it then? Who the fuck was in the dining room at the same time as Ryoma?"  
  
"That would be Toujo and I," Rantaro answered before Miu had the opportunity to say anything more vulgar, "I wanted a small meal and Toujo was cleaning the tables. Ryoma was there when I entered at six, to have a cup of tea, and he stayed to help Toujo clean for a bit."  
  
"Yes," Kirumi started, "He requested that I let him help me, so of course I allowed him to, despite my original insistence that cleaning is my job as a maid. He left at six thirty when the tables were cleaned."  
  
"So you had the opportunity to pour cleaning chemicals in a glass of water for him, right?" Tsumugi said, making Rantaro jump a little. He had forgotten she was there for a moment.  
  
"She never had the opportunity, actually," Rantaro mentioned, "she was in the dining hall the entire time and never once entered the kitchen to get to the chemicals. I highly doubt Ryoma would've picked up any random glass of water that was left out, too, so the chances of her poisoning his drink are pretty close to zero."  
  
"I hate to interrupt, but are we sure the cause of death is not related to the knife, or perhaps the cuts across his body? The state of the room implies a struggle, no? And the state of his body is not something that can be done via poisoning. Hoshi could have simply taken a glass of water anticipating his thirst, since he seemed so intent on staying in his room." Korekiyo said.

Rantaro paused. That certainly was true, but he had a feeling Hoshi took the glass for a different reason.  
  
"Actually, I'm pretty sure the knife isn't related to the _cause of death_. It's definitely related to the case, but the Monokuma File made a point to leave out the cause of death for a reason. And I think..." Shuichi trailed off, his hand covering his mouth as his eyes widened. Despite obviously figuring something out, the detective didn't say any more. Rantaro wondered if they had the same idea, and if Shuichi felt as sick about it as he did.  
  
"What is it, Saihara?" Kaede's eyebrows knit together in concern, but the boy didn't respond.  
  
Korekiyo continued staring straight into Shuichi's soul, "Let us say, hypothetically, that Hoshi was poisoned. The wound and appearance of the room suggest he was murdered brutally following a fight with his killer. Surely he would not do all of that himself-"  
  
"But someone else could have!" Kaede yelled, "There was one other person who saw the body, right? What if they messed with the scene of the crime?!"  
  
Rantaro will give Kaede something, she was good at getting people to shut up and listen to her. The room fell into a harsh silence as that statement sunk in.  
  
"You mean someone here is into touching dead bodies?!"  
  
"What kind of degenerate would do something so vile?"  
  
"Nyeh... that's so mean..."  
  
"Gonta not want to think anyone did something like that!"  
  
"Why would someone do such a thing?"  
  
As everyone spoke over each other in horror, Rantaro was beginning to piece some things together. The possibility was one he hadn't thought about, admittedly. He turned to Monokuma, "The rules state you can't directly participate in a murder, and I'm assuming messing with the crime scene counts as breaking that rule. Is that right?"  
  
The students were practically stunned into silence as Monokuma gave a shrill laugh, "Of course I can't ruin the crime scene! This wouldn't be a fair trial if I could!"  
  
"But it wouldn't be direct if, say, the mastermind did it, right?"  
  
Monokuma didn't respond. That was an answer enough.  
  
Beside him, Tsumugi trembled, "T-the mastermind?"  
  
Suddenly, Kaede didn't look so good. Tenko and Kaito looked at Shuichi with raised eyebrows, and Shuichi dropped his hand and composed himself. Rantaro was wondering when they'd bring up the library, but he was kind of hoping it wasn't important enough to discuss. He didn't really want to talk about it, he didn't want any chance of them finding out about his perk.  
  
"If the mastermind messed with the crime scene, then..." Shuichi wad looking directly at Rantaro now, just barely avoiding his eyes.  
  
The green-haired boy sighed deeply, and put his hands on his hips, "Then it can't be me."  
  
Kokichi's eyes flitted between Shuichi, Kaede, and Rantaro, his smile growing by the second, "Do you have something you'd like to share with the class?"  
  
"I think... I think we can talk about our plan now," Shuichi started, "There's... a hidden door in the library, behind a moving bookcase. It's patterned like Monokuma, so I figured it must be a door only the mastermind has access to. Akamatsu and I placed cameras in the library that would go off whenever someone entered and a sensor would go off if the bookcase was moved. We were trying to catch the mastermind but..."  
  
"I walked into the library and opened the bookcase instead. They caught me and thought I was the mastermind, " Rantaro concluded.  
  
Kaede looked unbelievably frightened from her podium, her eyes staring at Rantaro with unbridled terror. She was mumbling "But but but" under her breath.  
  
"I think..." Shuichi continued, "It's unrelated to the case, but I think someone messed with our plan."  
  
"What makes you say that?" Angie asked.  
  
"One of the cameras, the one that was supposed to catch the mastermind moving the bookcase, had the flash stuck on. We made sure to keep it off so that no one would know they were there."  
  
"That was me." Kaede whispered so quietly Rantaro almost missed it.  
  
"W-what?"  
  
"Did it have anything to do with the shot put ball that fell from the top of a bookcase?" Rantaro questions.  
  
Kaede was curling in on herself, "Yeah I... oh no." When Kiibo started to speak, she continued "I need- I just- Let me explain. Please."  
  
No one made any objections, "The plan was to catch the mastermind, but I- uh- I was desperate to save everyone. I thought... I thought..." Taking a deep breath, she yelled, "I tried to kill the mastermind!"  
  
Rantaro wasn't surprised, but his stomach still did an unwelcome flip.  
  
"I used Saihara's plan to come up with my own, and I thought killing the mastermind would end the game for sure, and I made a horrible mistake, and I'm so so so so sorry. I... I was so relieved when we found Amami in the library because I thought we had caught the mastermind, and I didn't end up ki-killing anyone, but... but..." Her breath hitched, and she turned to Rantaro with tears in her eyes," I could have gotten you killed, Amami. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry."  
  
Before Rantaro could assure her that he was okay, and that no one ended up hurt even if she had made a stupid decision that nearly cost two lives, Kokichi laughed.

"Our leader, everyone! I think we should overthrow her, clearly she's danger-"  
  
"God wants to know how this has to do with Hoshi's death!" Angie said, twirling her ligtail around her finger.  
  
"It doesn't! They wasted our time, how sad!" Kokichi's smile was thin, he definitely didn't like being cut off.  
  
"It just proves I'm not the mastermind, and we're at least all on the same page now, so it's fine. Let's just get back to the discussion."  
  
Korekiyo put a hand to his chin, "You mentioned the mastermind meddling with the scene of the crime, yes? Why would they do such a thing?"  
  
"Because they wanted an interesting start to the killing game." Shuichi said, suddenly more confident than before, "It means Ryoma did something to make his death too obvious, and they had to quickly change it."  
  
"Did... something?" Himiko asked.  
  
"He wrote a note, detailing his death. And I think there's one other thing we should consider. There is still one person who's lacking an alibi." Rantaro says, wondering how many of his fellow students understand. Kokichi probably did, for however childish and immature the supreme leader was he was incredibly sharp. Shuichi obviously knew _something._ Everyone else either didn't want to consider the options or just didn't get it, unless they were just also hiding their thoughts from the rest.  
  
"One person... do you mean Hoshi himself?" Shuichi pressed. At Rantaro's nod, half the people in the circle took sharp inhales.  
  
"The note then... could it have been a suicide note? Such a thing-"  
  
"That would explain a lot..." Tsumugi thankfully interjected before Korekiyo could go on a long tangent.  
  
"If it wasn't Toujo who poisoned his drink, it could only have been Hoshi himself. And he wouldn't know Toujo's way of putting the cleaning chemicals away, so it makes sense they'd be misplaced. There was a piece of paper next to his body that was soaked in blood. It was unreadable, but it did show signs of being written on. He did say..." Shuichi summarized.  
  
"The fucker did say he was willing to kill himself to save us from the time limit, didn't he?" Miu asked almost timidly. So that hadn't changed, Ryoma still mentioned killing himself if it would let everyone live. Rantaro wished he had convinced Ryoma otherwise like he had in his dream (dream?).  
  
The courtroom was silent for a moment.  
  
"If he did kill himself then... the knife, the cuts, the room, was it all just a diversion? Why would someone do something so... horrible?" It only took a glance to tell that Kiibo was terrified. They all were.  
  
"I think... yes," Shuichi said, "I think they cut his body up to make him bleed, so cover up his body so that we couldn't see anything past the blood. Then, they must have used the blood to cover up any bleeding from the mouth, too, because that tends to happen with poison, and soak the suicide note so that we couldn't read it. The room was ruined so that we would think there was a fight, too. It was all just to distract us from the truth behind Ryoma's death."  
  
"I don't... he shouldn't have done that! We could have beat the stupid time limit, we could have won!" Kaito slammed his hands down on his podium.  
  
"Tenko doesn't want to agree with a degenerate, but..."  
  
"Ah, perhaps we should close this up? If we summarize everything then we can see if we are missing anything or if any discrepancies exist," Toujo recommends.  
  
"I can do that," Shuichi offers. Rantaro's glad he doesn't have to be the one to go through everything again if only because he's not feeling too great. The soreness of his back and the lasting headache and the constant weariness he's had since the library were catching up with him.  
  
"It all began when Hoshi went to the dining hall at six. He offered to help Toujo clean, and learned where she kept the cleaning chemicals. From there, he devised a plan. Once he had finished in the dining hall, he took a glass of water to his room, knowingly pouring some of the cleaning chemicals into it to create a poison. He returned to his dorm room, and once the time limit grew ever closer, he decided to take matters into his own hands. In order to let the rest of us live and avoid Monokuma's threat of death, he drank the poisoned water and wrote a final note, a suicide note, detailing what he did. He wanted us to live, so he made sure we would know how he died in case we needed a class trial. Except, he didn't account for the one person who wanted this killing game to continue. Unbeknownst to everyone, the mastermind snuck into Hoshi's room and made it look as though there was a struggle by cutting up the walls and moving furniture around. They had also taken a knife from the kitchen at some point, and used it to cut Hoshi's body in order to cover the body, and the suicide note, in blood. With their goal accomplished, the mastermind left before anyone knew what was happening. Kiibo went to check on Hoshi as the time limit ticked by, but found Hoshi dead in his room. That's all that happened in this case."  
  
"Poor Hoshi," Gonta tearfully says.  
  
"So who doesn't have an alibi for after the time of death, then?" Kirumi's gaze sweeps around the courtroom.  
  
Korekiyo put a finger to his chin, "Ah, that would be Ouma, Kiibo, and Shirogane, I believe. I would also like to point out that it is not impossible for someone to simply ruin the scene for no reason other than entertainment, or as a test of sorts. We cannot be certain it was the mastermind without evidence." 

"No one here would do that! I believe they wouldn't-" 

"But someone did." Korekiyo reminds Kaito. 

"What?! Wait, but I thought, with the body announcement-"  
  
"Shut up Kiiboy," Ouma cut in, "The mastermind could always bend the rules a little. Of course they'd want to give themselves an alibi."  
  
"Wh-? You're included in this too!"  
  
"Exactly, and the two of you don't really have any alibis for the time of death or after so-"  
  
From his throne, Monokuma gives his signature laugh, cackling over the students, "Get ready, cause it's voting time! Will you make the right choice, or the dreadfully wrong one?"  
  
Protests spring up immediately around the courtroom.  
  
"The fuck?"  
  
"God says there is still more to discuss-"  
  
"We still don't know who fucked with Hoshi's body!"  
  
"This is so annoying."  
  
Instead of responding, Monokuma slammed his... fist? paw? hand onto a button, and a screen on each podium lit up, displaying icons of every student. Hoshi's was crossed out. A timer started at the bottom of the screen.  
  
Thirty seconds.  
  
"Puhuhuhuhu! Not voting is punishable by death, you know? So you better cast your votes and hope you're right!"  
  
Rantaro tapped Hoshi's icon, feeling afraid for the first time since stepping into the courtroom.  
  
Twenty seconds until they all live or die.  
  
He hears some of the more rough people tap their screens harshly.  
  
Ten.  
  
Those who had already voted sit there and wait, the nerves making it impossible to sit still for some. Rantaro twists his rings absent-mindedly, watching Kokichi struggle to stay at his podium instead of bounce around the room. Kirumi fiddles with her gloves, Korekiyo hugs himself tightly but otherwise looks unconcerned, Tenko is visibly sweating, Tsumugi toys with the ribbon on her shirt, even Kiibo is shifting around on his feet. The only one that looks completely composed is Angie, who has her hands clasped tightly in prayer but smiles brightly as though she couldn't care less if they all died.  
  
When the timer hits zero, no one breathes. Monokuma makes some speech, and the Monokubs add in their commentary, but no one is really listening. A wheel appears on a large display near Monokuma, showing each of the students little icons, spinning and spinning. When it lands on Hoshi, it pauses.  
  
The noise is so loud in the tense silence of the courtroom that several people jump into the air or scream, and others flinch violently. But the screen is flashing 'correct', and the noise was just confetti poppers.  
  
The sigh of relief could probably be heard from space.  
  
"Congratulations! You're right! The killer of Ryoma Hoshi is none other than Ryoma Hoshi himself!"  
  
"Does this mean there isn't gonna be an execution? I mean... you can't exactly execute a dead person, can you, you piece of shit?"  
  
Monokuma's red eye glinted. Oh how Rantaro wished Miu knew how to be quiet.  
  
"Oh I very much _can_ execute a dead person! In fact," the bear pushed another big button, and the screen changed to a pixelated version of Monokuma dragging Ryoma off screen, "Hoshi's execution is coooooming up!"  
  
The screen changed again, this time to a giant tennit court, two huge Monokuma's all set up to play a match. One of them had Ryoma's body in in its hand, and it tossed him into the air. A wet whack could be hear throughout the courtroom as Ryoma was flung around, the ball in his final tennis game. After a couple passes, one of the Monokumas threw another ball into the mess, a small iron ball that flew around, barely missing colliding with Ryoma's body.  
  
As the game got more heated, Ryoma's body became more and more mangled. Rantaro was really glad that Ryoma was dead, because this was brutal to watch, and it would have been brutal to go through. Just when any living person would have reach their limit, the iron ball finally hit Ryoma in midair, shooting straight through Ryoma's head. From the sidelines, Monodam nudges Monokid into the middle of the court. Just like with Ryoma, the iron ball flies straight through the bear's head.  
  
Rantaro's pretty sure that's how Ryoma killed all those mafia members.  
  
The screen shut off as Ryoma's body hit the court floor, barely recognizable. The courtroom was far from silent, Himiko had vomited again, Tenko holding the mage's hair and rubbing circles into her back. Kaede was sobbing grossly, Gonta doing the same on the other side of the room. Angie had fallen to her knees, fervently mumbling prayers upon prayers to her god. The less emotive of them were stood still and didn't dare move. The Monokubs and Monokuma scream and cry about their dead from their positions above the students.  
  
Kokichi pranced up to the elevator and said something or another, which must have angered Kaito because the astronaut ran up to Kokichi ans tried to punch him.  
  
Rantaro didn't pay attention. He's stood staring straight ahead, his head a mess. He should be feeling something. Ryoma was dead, Ryoma killed himself because Rantaro was too slow to do something about the time limit. He should be feeling guilt or sadness or anger or something. He should be horrified and disgusted by the execution. There should at least be relief that they voted correctly and didn't die.  
  
Instead, he only feels a horrible overwhelming sense of deja vu and familiarity.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> big F for ryoma i like him a lot as a character i just needed some way to kickstart things! and :))


	4. always sinking means the cycle will repeat

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> good job look what you've done now

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> tsumugi wont really have pov rights but she will sometimes,,, as a treat
> 
> the monokubs exist but like,,,, only when i need them too bc writing them is a pain oops
> 
> also i generally try to aim for 3000 words a chapter, so this one is a little long, sorry
> 
> as a sidenote, this is the final chapter of setup! so starting next chapter i can get into the Good stuff. im a lil excited

Tsumugi paces around in her dorm room.  
  
This wasn't how the game was supposed to go at all. To start, Rantaro and Kaede were still alive. That was a problem, a big one, because Shuichi's character development is supposed to be sparked by Kaede's death. And Rantaro living is just a problem in general, because the longer he lives the further everything gets from Tsumugi's control. It would be interesting to watch all this unfold if she wasn't literally in charge of making everything go well.  
  
And Ryoma was dead. Which means that, assuming Kirumi even ends up killing like she's _supposed to_ , someone else will have to die. Another opportunity for her plans to be foiled.  
  
Really, she doesn't know what she was thinking when she stabbed Ryoma's dead body. When her plan in the library had failed, she noticed Ryoma on the cameras. Poison. Ryoma was drinking poison. Fantastic. She had gone back to the dining hall briefly, then said something about visiting the game room, and rushed to Ryoma's room. Ryoma already had a knife in his room, taken in case his little drink of death had failed, probably, so Tsumugi could just use that. She burst open the door, grabbed the knife, and the rest passed in a blind rage. When she was done, thoroughly regretting her decision, she rushed back to her room, grateful that one of her ultimate cosplayer skills was being able to quickly change clothes. She ran back to the first floor girl's bathroom, splashing a bit of water on her face to "freshen up" (really, it was so no one noticed her sweating), flew through the hidden room, and arrived in the game room like nothing had happened. She had an alibi for both the time of death and the body announcement, but not in between. And she had seen the body.  
  
 _Great going Tsumugi._   
  
She let out a frustrated scream. Thankfully the dorms were soundproof, because Tsumugi had a lot of anger to get out.  
  
She needed control, she needed to get the game back on track.  
  
Rantaro needed to die.  
  
Okay well, he was supposed to die anyway, but Tsumugi would be lying if she said that was the only reason she wanted him out of the way. She hated the way her head pounded when she looked at him, the way she remembers killing him as she was supposed to, as she should have done, only to wake up and find out that it had been some stupid... dream or something. A hallucination? Oh boy, maybe Tsumugi was just finally losing her mind.  
  
It didn't matter. Whatever she did, it would all be pointless if Rantaro lives. Kaede needed to die as well, but maybe she's put herself out of the picture already. Her little attempted murder plot would be enough to make people distrust her, surely.  
  
Nothing is going according to plan, so Tsumugi will improvise. Plans didn't work, so to hell with them.  
  
She just needs to regain control.  
  
\--  
  
Rantaro wakes up in his room. He doesn't remember falling asleep last night, or even leaving courtroom in the first place. He must have at some point, though, because he's here and his shoes have been kicked off and his survivor perk is safe under his pillow, so obviously he was just too dazed. Not like that's the first time he's come back to reality only to realize he's in a completely different location.  
  
His back is still a little sore, which means Tenko bruised it yesterday (god, yesterday, it felt like such a long time ago). The morning announcement just played, so at least he didn't oversleep.  
  
Surprisingly enough, everyone shows up to breakfast. Rantaro had expected people to stay far away from each other once the game started, but clearly he had underestimated the optimism of certian classmates. Shuichi was the last through the door and definitely had to be dragged to the dining hall by Kaede, who avoided most people's eyes.  
  
The table fell into comfortable conversations, and Rantaro felt a bit uneasy when he noticed clear groups were starting to form. It wasn't unexpected, but it could cause issues down the line. He also noticed Tsumugi glancing at him from time to time with something unexplainable in her eyes, and how everyone clearly avoided Kaede, and the three biggest suspects for the mastermind. It seems people were still wary around each other.   
  
About halfway through breakfast, Monokuma ruined the mood, causing Miu to cuss the bear out and Kokichi threw Shuichi's hat at it, much to the detective's dismay.

Monokuma dodged the poorly thrown hat easily, "How rude! It's almost like you don't want me here! And I had gifts for you guys, too..."  
  
"We _don't_ want want you here," Kaito yells.  
  
"Gifts?" Kokichi's eyes sparkle.  
  
"Go away, nyeh, what a pain..." Himiko puts her head down on the table, from beside the mage Tenko glares at Monokuma.  
  
"Yes, gifts! Since you all did sooooo well on your first class trial! My lovely kubs have them here for you!"  
  
"Uhm..." Tsumugi starts, "the Monokubs aren't here...?"  
  
"What?!" Whipping his head around, Monokuma notices the lack of his children, "My kubs! Where did those rascals get off too, I'm gonna have to punish them for this-"  
  
"We're here papa!" Monophanie squeals. Rantaro was really hoping he wouldn't have to see more of the Monokubs, but apparently they were a thing in the game.  
  
"Oh, my darling children! Give these ungrateful bastards the gifts I've so lovingly prepared for them and then come here for your licks."  
  
Thankfully, whatever licks were going on between the robot bears wasn't going to happen in the dining hall. Monokuma vanished, and after placing various objects onto the table the Monokubs left with their catchphrase.  
  
"What the hell is all this? This is a bunch of shit!" Miu picked up a red ball of some sort from the items. Other than that, there was an ocarina, something that looked kind of like a crank of some sort, and an old... passport? That's what it looked like at least.  
  
"Yoink!" Kokichi plucked the red ball (which, on second glance, looked less like a ball and more like a red gem) from Miu's hand, laughing when she spluttered, "I know what this does! I wanna use it!"  
  
And then the self proclaimed supreme leader of a 10,000 member organization stuck his tongue out at her in a show of incredible maturity.  
  
"I guess since there are four items we can work in groups of four. Well..." Shuichi grimaced, "and one group of three."  
  
"Tenko doesn't want to work with any of the degenerate males here, so stay away from her and Yumeno!" Tenko put a protective hand on Himiko's back, the mage sleepily rubbing her eyes. Angie stuck with them as well, and dragged Tsumugi into their group upon seeing the cosplayer alone. Tsumugi had grabbed the ocarina in excitement, saying something about video games.  
  
On the other side of the dining hall, Kaito, Kaede, Shuichi, and Maki had formed a clear team, and Shuichi had the crank tucked safely in his hand. Maki didn't bother waiting, and marched out the door saying she wasn't going to participate.  
  
Kokichi attached himself to Rantaro's waist, the red gem still tight in his grip. Korekiyo had also made his way over to Rantaro, hesitating when he saw Kokichi but deciding to partner with the two regardless.  
  
Kiibo and Miu stuck together, and were invited by Kirumi and Gonta into a group together, taking the only object left--the passport.  
  
"Are these the groups, then?" Shuichi asked. No one made any objections, so they all agreed to meet at the gym once they were done exploring.  
  
While they were leaving the dining room, following Kokichi's _very clear_ instructions (aka vague hints at where to go because telling them would be too boring, apparently), Rantaro raised an eyebrow at Korekiyo.  
  
"I would've thought the passport would be something more your style."  
  
Korekiyo glanced at Rantaro, "Did you? I will admit I was intrigued by it, but I would rather not interact with Iruma if possible. I can handle many things, but she is something else entirely."  
  
"Wow, Shinguji, that's kinda mean, don't you think? What if she heard you say that?" Kokichi had grasped Rantaro's arm loosely as they walked and had yet to let go. Rantaro didn't mind, really. It reminded him of something one of his sisters would do before... well, before he lost them all. But now wasn't the time to think about things like that, one problem at a time.  
  
"I do believe you are the one who calls Iruma a whore and a pig at every opportunity. I hardly think you are in any position to judge me."  
  
Kokichi shrugged, "If the shoe fits. Oh! Oh! Up here!"  
  
The three climbed the stairs to the second floor as Korekiyo continued, "Besides, we agreed on groups of four. Joining the group with the passport would create a group of five and leave you two on your own."  
  
"That makes sense. Hey, I'm glad you decided to join us- Wh-"  
  
Kokichi launched himself from Rantaro's arm and ran to the statue of a dragon that just sat here. Rantaro always thought it looked bit of place in a school like this, and he noticed it was missing an eye. The purple-haired boy shoved the red gem into the eye socket forcefully and Korekiyo winced at the noise the gem made when it collided with the stone statue. The noise almost reminded Rantaro of something.  
  
Instantly, a wall near the statue fell away, revealing a hidden hallway.  
  
If he remembered the map on his survivor perk correctly, this led to the next floor and several new labs.  
  
He was right. They immediately spotted Kirumi's lab, which Korekiyo seemed delighted in as it came with plenty of washing machines. Kokichi spent all of one minute in there before declaring it boring and moving on. On the same area they came across Gonta's lab, and Kokichi got a mischievous glint in his eyes when he saw the live bugs. Right next to Gonta's lab was an empty space with a single large treasure chest in the middle.  
  
Rantaro frowned. This was unexpected.  
  
Ignoring Korekiyo's warning that opening random chests in a killing game was a bad idea, Kokichi threw open the lid and pulled out... a flashlight? It looked like something Miu would invent.  
  
"How interesting..." Korekiyo muttered. Kokichi would have run off with the device if the taller boy hadn't taken it from him so suddenly, "Perhaps we should share it with everyone before doing anything rash. We don't know what it does just yet."  
  
Whining, Kokichi lost interest and ran up the stairs to the third floor. The anthropologist hugged the device close to his chest before following, Rantaro close behind.  
  
The third floor held more research labs. Ryoma's lab (which Monokuma shooed them away from-- apparently they weren't allowed to enter a lab if that student died before it was unlocked), and one that Rantaro knew was Maki's but that looked sort of plain. It didn't hold any sort of image or depiction of the owner's talent like other lab doors did. Rantaro had always thought something was off about Maki and her Ultimate Child Caregiver talent. He recognizes the look she has when she tells people about her talent, considering he sees it in himself. Either Maki was lying, or there's something more to her.  
  
Kokichi tried to open the door, but it only opened a sliver. Maki could be seen on the other side holding the door shut and keeping anything from inside the lab out of sight.  
  
"Go away."  
  
"Last I checked there were no rules on labs! You can't keep me out!" Kokichi tried to force his way in, but Maki slammed the door shut, narrowly avoiding crushing his fingers.  
  
"Does she not want people in there?" Korekiyo questioned.  
  
"She must not, if she's guarding it," Rantaro frowned again.  
  
"Maaan, that's _super_ suspicious of her! I'll just have to find another way in." Kokichi sang, already skipping off to explore the rest of the floor.  
  
"I hoped you aren't going to cause trouble. If Harukawa doesnt want anyone in her lab then leave her be for now." Rantaro didn't doubt the supreme leader's ability to get into places he shouldn't be in. It was a little worrying, because even if Maki was horribly suspicious Rantaro had no desire to delve into her business when he's hiding secrets of his own.  
  
Despite knowing that those two labs were the only ones on the floor, Rantaro still looked around thoroughly. He liked exploring, something about it felt extremely familiar to him. Probably from all that traveling.  
  
They decided they were finished and headed to the gym.  
  
\--  
  
Below, in a newly opened pool, Tsumugi smiles genuinely when she sees Tenko rush to protect Himiko from falling into the pool. Angie notes the pool rules, and Himiko says that lack of water in the pool is a pain but she's laughing a little at Tenko's explanation of "It's obviously to keep degenerates from trying to peek at girls in swimsuits!". Tsumugi feels warm, like a part of the group, as they all chuckle at another one of her vague anime references despite not understanding.  
  
The feeling is immediately replaced with something much colder when she remembers her place.  
  
\--  
  
The flashback light is horrible.  
  
Beyond the confusing mess of memories it puts in Rantaro's head, it makes his stomach twist and turn and he feels sick.  
  
The Ultimate Hunt, which means the note he found on his survivor perk (from himself, supposedly, but how can he trust that if he can't trust anyone (and it had nearly gotten him killed)) was right in predicting that the first thing they'd remember was the Hunt.  
  
Which meant everything else on the perk was probably right, for better or worse. Except if Rantaro's theory is correct then it can't be completely true, because otherwise there would be no way for the mastermind to have killed him...  
  
People start leaving the gym in various states of dismay and Rantaro catches up to Shuichi, who was on his way out.  
  
"Hey, Saihara, can I ask you something?"  
  
Shuichi looked at him for a second as Kaito, who the detective was leaving with, turns around with confusion written in his expression.  
  
"Uhm, sure, what is it?"  
  
"Did you develop the photos from the cameras in the library?"  
  
"What? No, we haven't had the chance yet, why?"  
  
"Could you? I have a... theory and they'd really help."  
  
"A theory? Is it something that could help us get the hell out of here?!" Kaito spoke up. In truth, the theory Rantaro had was a little more selfish than that and purely for gathering information, but it could also be used to capture the mastermind if it was correct.  
  
Rantaro hesitates before answering, "Maybe. I'd like to gather as much information as possible before getting anyone's hopes up, you know?"  
  
"Oh yeah, totally, just let us know if you need anything!" Kaito declares as Monophanie pops into existence next to them, causing the astronaut to shriek.  
  
"If you let me take the cameras I can develop those pictures for you." The pink bear tells them.  
  
"O-oh-"  
  
"How do we know you're not gonna mess with them?!"  
  
Monophanie fidgets at Kaito's accusation, "I would never! Daddy would get so mad at me-"  
  
"So could you get the pictures developed soon?" Rantaro cuts her off. He'd rather not hear about what goes on in the Monokuma family.  
  
"Of course! I'll just go get the cameras," and just as quickly as she arrived, Monophanie vanished.  
  
"Uhm, could I ask what this theory is? Maybe I could help?"  
  
"No offense, Saihara, but I'd rather handle this on my own until I know more. I just don't want too many people to be aware of this, just in case."  
  
Not technically untrue, he really didn't want anyone aware of his theory if he could help it. While he's pretty sure he saw the mastermind before dying in that dream, a quick flash of blue that really narrowed down possible candidates because not too many people had large noticeable amounts of blue on their person here, anyone could be out to get him. Rantaro's never trusted easily, and in a game like this trusting others was too dangerous. Besides, it was easier to work alone, especially on something like this, where his idea is based solely on something he may or may not have imagined.

Shuichi nodded politely. If he thought Rantaro was being suspicious he definitely didn't say anything, which Rantaro appreciated. He didnt mind being called suspicious, and he knew that he often seemed a bit shady at times, but it wasn't as though he meant to be.  
  
"When the Monokubs give me the pictures I'll try to find you," the detective announced before waving goodbye and following Kaito out of the gym.  
  
Not knowing how long the Monokubs would take with the pictures, Rantaro thought it would be beneficial to stay somewhere he'd be easy to find. He didn't really want to spend too long in his room, but some time outside couldn't hurt. Maybe he would find someone to spend some time with.  
  
And find someone he did. Outside the dorms, peering intently at the ground with concentration written all over his face, was Gonta. Occasionally the giant boy would spot something and flick his head around trying to follow it, but whatever it was Gonta saw didn't seem to stay for long.  
  
Rantaro was glad for the opportunity to talk to Gonta, he seemed like such a good person.  
  
"Hey, Gokuhara, what are you doing there?"  
  
Gonta, too focused on his task to notice Rantaro approach, startled when he was spoken to.  
  
"Oh, Amami! Gonta was just looking for bugs! Gonta thought it strange that there were no bugs here even in grass, but earlier Gonta saw tiny tiny bug fly by! Too small to see properly, but Gonta has good vision and he saw it!"  
  
"Really?" Rantaro looked around, feeling a bit foolish when he saw nothing. Then again, his vision wasn't anything special, "That's pretty impressive. Have you seen any other bugs around?"  
  
Gonta's face fell, "No, Gonta only saw tiny bugs and ones in his lab. Gonta was hoping he would see some tiny bugs again, but he not find any yet. Oh, Gonta need to take care of bugs in lab, would Amami like to join?"  
  
It was far too difficult to say no when the entomologist looked so excited, so Rantaro smiled and accepted the offer. As the pair made their way upstairs, Gonta shared fact after fact about some of the bugs he'd come across in the wild. When they arrived at the lab, Gonta sped in and started fussing with some of the enclosures.  
  
"Gonta needs to check food and homes for bugs, but Gonta can show Amami some of them if he'd like?"  
  
"I'm happy just watching, but if you want to show me some then go ahead."  
  
If he were anyone else, Rantaro would probably stay far away from any opportunity to be around bugs, but he didn't mind them that much. He often encountered many different bugs on his travels (though he never stopped to look at them and often swatted them away, not that he was about to tell Gonta that).  
  
Gonta quickly and gently made sure each of the bugs had proper food, and checked over the enclosures (maybe adjusting the humidity? Rantaro didn't know a lot about keeping bugs). When he was done, the entomologist turned to a larger enclosure and, after asking Rantaro to double check that the lab door was shut tight, opened it up. Immediately, colorful butterflies flew out and fluttered around the room.  
  
"Oh, Gokuhara, they're beautiful!" Rantaro gaped.  
  
"Friends can call Gonta Gonta! And Gonta thinks many people are afraid of bugs because they look scary, so Gonta thought he show Amami butterflies! They are very pretty! Gonta also thinks they make people feel better, and Gonta thinks Amami has been feeling down."  
  
Rantaro stopped looking around at the butterflies dancing in the air and turned his gaze to Gonta, "...Have I been acting down lately?"  
  
"Gonta knows when friends are not happy! Gonta not really smart, but Gonta able to tell when others are feeling sad," Gonta gave a large vibrant smile, "Gonta not want friends to feel sad, even if things are not good now!"  
  
Rantaro's heart felt unreasonably heavy. He didn't consider anyone in the killing game his friends (it was easier if you didn't, friends meant getting attached, and getting attached meant getting hurt when those friends inevitably died or betrayed you), but Gonta was good and kind and definitely didn't deserve this. Despite Gonta's claims that he wasn't smart, he was perceptive and observant, and obviously knew a lot if he was known as the Ultimate Entomologist. In another world, he and Rantaro could have been close friends.  
  
Rantaro decides not to think about that other world.  
  
Rantaro replicated Gonta's smile, "Hey, Gonta? You think you could show me some other bugs? I'd love to hear about them."  
  
Gonta's face lit up, and they spent the next hour or so looking at various bugs and chatting.  
  
It was nice and relaxing and enjoyable, and Rantaro forgot about the horrible dread he'd been feeling.  
  
\--  
  
Rantaro was in his room when Shuichi found him.  
  
The detective carried three folders with him--presumably filled with the photos--and he laid them out on the table once he and Rantaro settled themselves.  
  
"Monophanie promises she developed all of the photos, but I don't know what you were hoping to see."  
  
"You had a way of checking the card reader, didn't you?" He asked Shuichi as he pulled the pictures out.  
  
"Ah, yeah, I put some dust on the card reader so that if anyone used it, the dust would be knocked out of place."  
  
"Smart. Did anyone use it?"  
  
Shuichi shakes his head, "No, the dust was still in place."  
  
Rantaro hummed and examined the photos splayed out on the table. Ignoring the ones of Shuichi's face that were obviously taken when he took them down, as well as the ones from when Rantaro had entered the library and everything after that, there was... nothing else.  
  
"Are you sure the cameras would catch whenever someone entered the library? They wouldnt miss someone, would they?"  
  
Shuichi knit his eyebrows together, "No, they had sensors that would take a picture if they caught movement. And no one used the card reader, so-"  
  
"It would be impossible for the mastermind to use the hidden door." Rantaro finished.  
  
He put a hand to his chin. If no one used the hidden door then it would have been impossible for anyone to be ready to kill him once he got in place. But, if everything else about the day was the same as his "dream", then how could that have been different. No one could have been hiding in there since before the cameras were set up, because everyone was accounted for at some point during the night. Maybe there really wasn't anyone ready to pop out and murder him, but something about that struck him as odd. There had to be someone waiting, which meant there had to be another entrance to that room somewhere-  
  
"Are you okay, Amami? You're making a pretty scary face."  
  
Snapping out of his deep thought, Rantaro smiled at Shuichi.  
  
"Haha, was I? Sorry about that, I was just thinking."  
  
"It's fine! Uh, do you mind sharing your thoughts? I have some theories of my own and sometimes it helps if I'm able to talk through them with someone." Shuichi tugged at his hat, pulling it over his eyes.  
  
"I don't think you'd want to talk this sort of thing through with me of all people, I don't think I'd be much help. Don't you have Momota and Akamatsu to go to?"  
  
Rantaro winced--that probably sounded a lot ruder than he meant it to. Truthfully, he wouldn't mind hearing some of the Ultimate Detective's theories, but sharing his own... well, he was still opposed to that idea. He felt a little bad about it when Shuichi pulled the hat down lower.  
  
"W-well, yeah, but... I mean, it's fine if you don't want to! I just think it helps to have allies..."  
  
Rantaro chuckled, hoping it sounded less dry and more easy going. "Thanks, but I don't think my theories are any good just yet. Maybe I'll get back to you on that."  
  
He stood up and brushed the wrinkles from his pants. Shuichi took the subtle hint that their conversation was over, and gathered the photos before leaving.  
  
"Thanks, Saihara! That was a lot of help." Rantaro waved. Shuichi just nodded and ran off.  
  
Rantaro had some exploring to do.  
  
\--  
  
The nighttime announcement chimed and everyone returned to their dorms in the hopes of getting some sleep. Well, not quite everyone; Rantaro waited fifteen minutes to make sure he wasn't going to be heard before exiting the dormitories and making his way to the academy.  
  
It was best to look around while people were asleep, he thought, because it meant no one was around to spot him in places he shouldn't be. It was safer, but that didn't mean it was comfortable.  
  
The academy at night was haunting. Normally the plantlife invading the halls gave the building a nice natural atmosphere, but when everyone was asleep and the moonlight shone through the barb wired windows, casting pointed shadows on the floor, the whole place felt abandoned and kind of creepy.  
  
There were definitely ghosts roaming these halls.  
  
The labs were low on Rantaro's list of suspicious places, but he checked them all out regardless with the exception of Maki's and Ryoma's. When he tried opening the child caregiver's lab he found Maki still in it, fully prepared to slam the door in his face and tell him to go away. And apparently the Monokubs didn't sleep, because they still shooed him away from Ryoma's lab when he tried to enter.   
  
_Why would Harukawa be so determined to hide her lab...?_

  
But he couldn't dwell on other people's business, he had a mission to complete, a secret entrance to find.  
  
As expected, none of the labs held anything that even remotely looked or acted like a secret passageway. Not even when he tried moving the plaques of bugs on the walls of Gonta's lab, or the cds in Kaede's lab, or the candles in Kirumi's lab.  
  
The main entrance hall and the other hallways were also pretty low on the list of suspicion, but Rantaro knew it would be easy to hide a passageway somewhere amongst the thick vines and clumps of plants. Unfortunately, there was nothing there either.  
  
He was brushing leaves from the walls not too far from the first floor bathrooms when he was tackled from behind.  
  
"Nishishi! Amami looks awfully suspicious sneaking around late at night, y'know~"  
  
"Ouma!"  
  
Said boy let go of Rantaro and stared at him with a blank expression.  
  
"What brings you here, Amami? Isn't it dangerous to be alone at night like this?"  
  
Rantaro frowned and poked Kokichi in the forehead, "You were here alone at night, too."  
  
A thin smile overtook Kokichi's face, "Maybe I saw you leave your room and decided to stalk you! Maybe I've secretly been planning a murder and you're my victim! Or maybe that's a lie, who knows."  
  
"I don't think you'd come up to me if you were planning to kill me, you're smarter than that."  
  
"Oh, Amami thinks I'm smart! What a fool, thinking you know my intentions. But aaanyway, is there a reason you're staring at walls?"  
  
"..." Two things immediately clashed in Rantaro's head. On one hand, Kokichi being the mastermind was almost too obvious. The supreme leader made himself suspicious from the start and has been actively isolating himself from others with his actions. On the other hand, Kokichi was one of three people who didn't have an alibi for right after Ryoma's death, which means it's possible for him to be the mastermind who ruined the crime scene. But...  
  
 _A flash of blue._  
  
No, Kokichi was in the perfect position to be an antagonist in the game. Smart, observant, independent, a liar through and through, but he also had a deep hatred for the killing game, Rantaro knew. An antagonist, but not the ringleader.  
  
"I'm looking for a secret passageway," Rantaro finally said, searching Kokichi's expression (which remained stubbornly blank), "The school is old and I thought it would be expected for a place like this to have one, right? Like in movies."  
  
Kokichi just laughed, "If that's the reason you want to share then fine. Why don't I join you, for protection! I can protect my beloved Amami from any stinky murderers!"  
  
"Of course, I'm sure you'll do a great job." Rantaro laughed easily, but he didn't feel like laughing. This would be harder with another person with him, he couldn't act as impulsively as he normally would. But if he had to work with anyone in the game, Kokichi would probably be his first choice.  
  
They were walking past the bathrooms when Rantaro stopped in his tracks as a thought struck him.  
  
Were bathrooms not an ideal place to hide something? A hidden door, a secret room, a switch or a button, something you wouldn't think to check unless you knew it was there. They were private enough not to be obvious, but public enough that no one would question you visiting them. And depending on which bathroom you hid something in, half the students here had a near non-existent chance to notice anything amiss.  
  
Kokichi realized Rantaro wasn't moving along and raised an eyebrow, "Does Amami need the bathroom? I'm not promising I won't leave you alone if you go now!"  
  
"... Hey, Ouma, do you think you could help me with something?"  
  
"Hmm?? What does my beloved Amami need so badly?"  
  
"I'd like to check the bathrooms real quick. You don't have to help if you don't want to, but I'd like your help."  
  
If the supreme leader thought something was strange about that, he didn't question anything. There was a very slight moment of hesitation that anyone other than Rantaro might have missed, but then he sprang into action and burst into the boy's bathroom with childish fervor.  
  
After about ten minutes of searching the boys bathroom, Kokichi sighed, "This is so booooring! There's nothing here, Amami!"  
  
"We've exhausted all options here so... We should probably move onto the girl's bathroom now."  
  
"Oooh? Is Amami secretly a big pervert?"  
  
Rantaro felt his face flush, "Of course not! I told you I'm just looking for a passageway!"

Kokichi cackled and pulled Rantaro into the girl's bathroom by his wrist.  
  
Immediately something stood out. Rantaro had never been into a girl's bathroom before, but he was pretty sure they didn't usually have utility closets in them. It was almost out of place, especially considering the boy's didn't have anything similar. Kokichi clearly thought so too, because he threw the closet doors wide open, causing them to creak on their hinges, and glared at the contents inside.  
  
After trying everything they did in the boys bathroom (sinks, handles, faucets, tiles on both the floor and the walls), Rantaro heard a yelp and pivoted to find Kokichi halfway inside the utility closet.  
  
The back of it had fallen away, revealing a tunnel leading who-knows-where.  
  
Kokichi hopped up and dusted himself off, "I meant to do that!"  
  
Alarm bells rang in Rantaro's head, but he pressed forward regardless. Kokichi followed closely behind, saying he'd "let Amami take the lead just in case", which really didn't help his rising nerves.  
  
The hallway was dark and dusty and made of plain concrete, and there was a slight decline to it, and at the end of it...  
  
It opened up into a big room, and Rantaro would've taken it in if he hadn't seen something in the corner of his eye.  
  
 _A flash of blue._

And as Kokichi stepped into the room, someone flew from a corner of the secret room with a metal ball in hand, slamming it down onto the smaller boy's head and filling the room with the horrible sound of metal on bone. Violent pink burst forth, and Kokichi staggered before falling heavily to the floor.  
  
Tsumugi turned to Rantaro with intense hatred in her eyes and a bloody shot put ball in her hand, and Rantaro turned to run back through the passage.  
  
 _I just watched Kokichi die_ , his brain screamed, his thoughts racing a thousand miles an hour, _I just got him killed. He's dead because of me_ -  
  
Tsumugi was faster than he'd given her credit for, and she stuck her leg in front of his. Rantaro hit the ground hard and he would've winced if he wasn't running on pure adrenaline and survival instincts.  
  
He flipped onto his back in time to see Tsumugi holding the shot poised above his head, and she brought it down with such bloodthurst-  
  
Rantaro died instantly, and Tsumugi would've admired her handiwork (One problem solved, Kokichi dead but she could work with that, and no one would find their bodies until she wanted them to) if her head hadn't exploded in pain.  
  
She stood and immediately collapsed to her knees, clutching her head in agony as her vision faded.  
  
\--  
  
Two people shoot awake in their beds.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> fun fact! the scene with gonta was completely written on a whim because i was struggling to write this chapter and i decided some nice pure gonta would help and it did!
> 
> (as an aside, yes i do think its a bit silly that no one even thought the closet in the girls bathroom was the slightest bit strange or even. searched for a hidden passage in an obviously old school bc youd think someone would try)


	5. wont save you now cause we're not friends

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> friendly discussions and several big mistakes! oh boy

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> okay i lied a little this chapter is kind of setup but like. discount setup??? idk its like the bridge between setup and not if that makes sense. its also shorter than id like, but to be fair the last two were pretty long so im sorry. 
> 
> also like???? this might be kinda long but thank you so much for all the comments???? like you are all so nice and some of them genuinely made me have to turn my phone off and lay down for a while just to calm down!! i dont respond to them because i am. anxious and my thoughts are just 'aaaaaaaaaaa' but they really do make me so happy,,, i write for fun and as a hobby and i dont often share a lot of it and im not ever that confident about it so hearing that people are enjoying this silly thing is really nice to hear,, thank you all!! (and those of you that give kudos as well, i love all of you,,,)
> 
> edit: i forgot to mention it but my classes are starting up very soon! i dont know what that'll mean for the frequency or length of updates, but i wanted to let yall know just in case!!

_Not a dream, definitely not a dream._  
  
Rantaro woke up in his bed with a pouding headache and a vision of Tsumugi burned into his mind.  
  
_Well of all the things that could happen, time travel is certainly not one I saw coming._  
  
It was stupid, really. Time travel? Of all things? But there was no other explanation, because it definitely wasn't a dream (no, Rantaro knew the moment he woke up that it wasn't a dream, he just _knew_ it) and it wasn't as though he survived because again, _there was no wound_.  
  
So when was this? The morning announcement sounded, and Rantaro pushed his headache to the back of his mind because someone was knocking at his door, hitting it so forcefully that he was surprised it hadn't broken yet.  
  
He opened the door, half expecting Kaede, but it was too early for Kaede to come get him. Instead of the pianist and her infectious optimism, he found the one person he didn't really care to see.  
  
Stood at his door with her fists clenched and her teeth grinding together was none other than Tsumugi.  
  
She waltzed into his room, her blue hair trailing her and her eyes flashing dangerously, and slammed the door shut.  
  
"Care to explain to me why I just saw Hoshi on his way to the dining hall?"  
  
Huh? All of the responses Rantaro had prepared for her were just thrown out the window. Ryoma? But that meant-  
  
"What?" He spat out a little more viciously than he meant to.  
  
"Hoshi, on his way to the dining hall, walking, alive?"  
  
"I don't know what you're talking about."  
  
Tsumugi clenched and unclenched her fists and took a deep breath to calm herself down.  
  
"What's the last thing you remember?"  
  
"You killed me."  
  
That caught Tsumugi off guard for a second, but she composed herself quickly, "I did. That's right, I killed you. But..." She grabbed at her hair and screamed, "But you're here! Alive, and so is Hoshi, and I'm willing to bet Ouma is fine as well and it's like everything I just did was for _nothing_."  
  
Rantaro leaned back on his bed and held a hand up to catch her attention, "What's the last thing _you_ remember, Shirogane?"  
  
Tsumugi slowly lowered her hands, staring at Rantaro vacantly and barely whispering a weak "I dont know..."  
  
"...You _don't know_!?"  
  
"I don't know! I killed you, and then... I- my head... I must have fainted somehow, and then I woke up in my room and came here."  
  
_"_ And you're absolutely sure you saw Hoshi?"  
  
"Yes, yes, it was definitely him. He's got a pretty recognizable figure, so..."  
  
The two stared at each other in silence before Tsumugi groaned.  
  
"Oh, I plainly don't know what's going on!"  
  
"Well, if even miss mastermind doesn't know then how am I supposed to?"  
  
"I... mastermind... Oh, shoot, I'm not-"  
  
"Not the mastermind? There's really no point in hiding it, Shirogane."  
  
"Shoot, there's no- shoot, no, I'm too plain- shit, okay!" Tsumugi pushed her glasses up as she straightened her back, glaring at Rantaro with an unreadable expression.  
  
"You can't tell anyone, you don't have any proof," Tsumugi voices slowly, speaking quietly but clearly, "And even if you did tell people, who are they going to believe: sweet, plain Tsumugi, or strange and suspicious Amami, who can't even remember his own talent?"  
  
Tsumugi gave him one last indescribable look and-  
  
And then she ran out of the room.  
  
Well, that's one way to end the conversation.  
  
Rantaro readied himself for the day and tried to focus on anything other than the pounding of his head and the knowledge that Tsumugi was right.  
  
Minutes later there was another _knock knock knock_ on his door and this time he was certain that it was Kaede.  
  
"Oh!" She said when he opened the door, "There you are! You didn't show up to breakfast so we were a bit worried!"  
  
_We've had this exchange before._  
  
"Haha, yeah, I just overslept. I was about to head to the dining hall."  
  
"I can come with you! I need to go back anyway."  
  
And so they made there way to the dining hall, Kaede chattering away about the time limit (so that's when this was-- the last morning before the time limit expires, which means no one has died yet) and how she wanted to put on a concert to boost everyone's spirits (hadn't she mentioned that last time?). Rantaro tried ignoring his headache and focusing on Kaede's voice, soft and melodic and full of determination, but his mind wouldn't cooperate. Instead, he replayed the last moments with Tsumugi over and over again.  
  
She hadn't outwardly threatened him, but her parting words certainly felt like a threat.  
  
Breakfast was nothing special, but Rantaro did note Tsumugi's fleeting glance at him through the glint of her glasses. This time, he made sure to catch Ryoma when the former tennis player mentioned killing himself.  
  
"You don't have to do something so drastic, Hoshi. It won't come to that."  
  
Ryoma pulled his hat over one eye, "You don't know that."  
  
"You're right, I don't. I just know that no one here would ask you to kill yourself for us, so don't even consider it."  
  
"...I doubt that, kid. I'm just saying I'd give up my life if it meant you all could live a little longer-"  
  
"And start the killing game?" Rantaro cut in darkly, "I'm telling you not to do something like that. It would only end badly for us all, okay?"  
  
Ryoma sighed deeply, gave Rantaro a determinated stare as if to ask if he was being serious, and turned turned to leave, "Looks like I've stills got a ways to go."  
  
It wasn't... a lot, and Rantaro wasn't sure Ryoma was convinced, but hopefully it would be enough to keep the tennis player alive.  
  
With breakfast done, Rantaro found himself at a loss for what to do for the rest of the day. Kaito wouldn't be gathering people for his "beat Monokuma squad" until much later, if Rantaro even still wanted to join them, and last time he'd spent the majority of the day asleep. He didn't really want to do that again, even if sleeping would help the headache go away.  
  
Actually, maybe Kirumi would be able to help with that.  
  
Thankfully, Kirumi was easy to find. The maid was still in the kitchen, calmly washing dishes. She noticed Rantaro walk in straight away.  
  
"Is there something I can do for you, Amami?"  
  
"Ah, yeah actually. I was wondering if you knew any recipes for a tea that would help with headaches?"  
  
"I do. If you wait a moment I can prepare you a ginger tea that should help."  
  
"Oh, you don't have to, I can manage myself if you tell me what to do."  
  
Kirumi smiled lightly and shook her head, drying off her hands, "Of course not. It is my duty as a maid to serve others. I take pride in serving, and I enjoy it, so please let me do this for you. It will not take a minute."  
  
Rantaro just gave in and sat back at the dining hall. Despite how stubborn he could be, this clearly wasn't a fight he was going to win. Surprisingly, there were still a few people in the dining hall.  
  
Tsumugi was huddled in a corner chatting amicably with Angie, and Korekiyo sat alone far away from them, reading a thick book. This was good, Rantaro wanted to keep an eye on Tsumugi. Even if he couldn't tell anyone about her mastermind status yet, he intended to make sure she couldn't do anything to start the killing game.  
  
He took a seat in front of Korekiyo, who politely nodded to acknowledge his new company. True to her word, Kirumi handed Rantaro a steaming cup of tea less than a minute after he had asked for one. Whatever she did in that kitchen, it was pure magic.  
  
"Thank you, Toujo."  
  
Kirumi simply bowed and returned to the kitchen.  
  
"Ginger?" Korekiyo raised an eyebrow.  
  
"Oh, I asked Toujo for a tea that would help alleviate headaches and this is what she said." He took a sip, feeling the warmth from the tea spread throughout his body. Korekiyo hummed in response.  
  
"Do you have a headache?"  
  
"Yeah, you could call it that." Rantaro laughed.  
  
"Well, I hope the tea helps. Headaches are less than ideal in a situation such as this. I have no doubt in Toujo's abilities, however. She is quite good at what she does."  
  
"Yeah, she's pretty amazing." Another long sip, and Rantaro gestured to the book Korekiyo was invested in, "What are you reading about?"  
  
"Oh, it is a rather old book detailing customs from cultures long forgotten. Most of these customs are familiar to me already, but it is one of the few books I found in the library that would interest me. Particularly the sections on ancient traditions surrounding the afterlife... "  
  
Korekiyo continued on, telling his company about the book and then going off on tangents only loosely related. Rantaro didn't mind, he just drank his tea and listened to Korekiyo talk in detail about his passion.  
  
His headache faded into the background, and he didn't notice the other two people in the dining hall slip out.  
  
They spent about two hours together engaged in mostly one-sided conversation, and Rantaro's tea had gotten cold because he was so focused on Korekiyo's words, but he felt at ease for a while.  
  
He instantly kicks himself for getting so invested in Korekiyo's little lesson.  
  
He had gotten so distracted, too distracted, and by the time Korekiyo had stopped talking and the two went their seperate ways Tsumugi was long gone.  
  
He tried looking all around for her, but it was like she'd just disappeared.  
  
Or she knew he was looking for her, which couldn't be ruled out because she was, well, the _mastermind._  
  
He would've checked the secret passageway in the girl's bathroom if it wasnt broad daylight and if the risk of Tenko body slamming him to the ground wasn't as high as it was.  
  
Just as he was contemplating if it was a risk worth taking, Kaito approached him.  
  
\--  
  
Tsumugi had a plan, it was just a stupid and insanely dangerous plan.  
  
She had panicked a little (okay, a lot) when everything reset, but that's fine. It was apparently activated by Rantaro dying, which just meant that he had to not die. Unfortunate, considering the entire game kind of hinged on his death, but she'd just have to work around it.  
  
She was Junko Enoshima the 53rd, and she was going to make this season perfect no matter what.  
  
She spent the majority of the day in the hidden room after leaving Angie. As nice as spending time with the artist was, Tsumugi couldn't be friends with these people. Not in her position, when she was in charge of the killing game in which most of them would lose their lives. Allies, definitely, because it would help against any accusations Rantaro made against her, but friends were a big no-go.  
  
It was a little lonely, but it was fine. Tsumugi did this to herself, she chose this, so she was going to live with it.  
  
Flicking through the camera feeds, she noted everyone's locations. Gonta was outside, examining the grass intently, and thankfully hadn't been approached by Kaito yet, which was good. In fact, Kaito's group was still only three people strong, consisting of Maki, Rantaro, and Kaito himself. Perfect, because the time limit was looming closer and closer and she had to make her move soon. Tenko and Himiko were with Angie near the Shrine of Judgement, Kaede and Shuichi still setting things up in the library (for a plan that had no use anymore, which was kind of a shame), Ryoma and Kiibo were in their rooms. Ryoma hadn't grabbed a knife this time, or a poisoned glass of water, which only meant Tsumugi would have to take matters into her own hands. She couldn't wait for anyone else to snap and kill.  
  
The clock neared 8:30 pm, and she left the safety of the hidden room to find Gonta, picking up a bundle on the table on her way out and double checking that she wouldn't cross paths with Rantaro on the way. She couldn't have him watching her.  
  
Gonta was still watching the ground for bugs that didn't exist when she found him.  
  
"Oh, Gokuhara! Just the person plain old me was looking for!" She peered at him innocently through her glasses.  
  
"What can Gonta do for Shirogane?"  
  
"Oh, well, I thought I plainly saw a bug on the second floor and I thought you were the perfect person to tell! I don't want it to get hurt any, could you take a look? I can show you where it is."  
  
"Shirogane found bug?! Gonta not find any bugs in Academy, please show Gonta where bug is!"  
  
"Of course!"  
  
Tsumugi smirked, pushing her glasses up as she led Gonta upstairs, clutching the bundle close to her chest and gripping something inside. Her heart beat erratically and her nerves rose.   
  
\--  
  
Rantaro was sort of hoping Kaito would stop looking for people after Tenko, Himiko, and Angie. Strangely, they couldn't find Gonta anywhere and Kaito seemed particularly bummed about that because "That guy's built like a tank and he's too strong to not recruit".  
  
Kaito had tried to get Ryoma on the team, but was promptly shut down when the door was shut rather harshly in his face. Eventually, after a whole lot of knocking, Kaito gave up and the team of six headed out of the dorms and towards the Academy.  
  
As they reached the steps a loud crash sounded from above, and Rantaro's blood went cold.  
  
The window had been broken and Tsumugi had fallen through it, hitting the ground from the second floor with a wet crunch.  
  
Rantaro would think that, normally, someone would be able to survive a fall like that. After all, it was only from the second floor, but Tsumugi had basically been flung out the window and definitely hit her head on one of the steps when she landed and her neck is looking a little purple. That's not even accounting for the glass stabbing into her (her neck, her arms, her back, she must have crashed onto the broken glass hard), causing blood to seep into the ground and down the steps.  
  
Her glasses had broken and landed beside her, and something else made its way beside her body as well.  
  
Rantaro vaguely recognized the familiar shape of a kitchen knife before his body felt like it was on fire and he doubled over in pain.  
  
The body discovery announcement played and the members of Kaito's team all made various terrified exclamations, some of them making their way to Rantaro and asking if he was okay.  
  
He was not okay. His vision was fading and everything hurt.  
  
_Oh,_ Rantaro thought, before he succumbed to the pain and passed out.  
  
\--  
  
They wake up again. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i feel like for this chapter and the next few i should specify that this is super incredibly self indulgent and that i write what i like to write which just so happens to be *gestures vaguely* pain. so uh. yeah haha


	6. maybe im wretched and deserve this i dont know

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> shaky agreements wont save you in the end

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> oops!
> 
> we're moving into chapters that were kind hard to write, this one especially. im still not the happiest about how this turned out, but ive rewritten it so many times and this is the best version in my opinion so,,,,,,

This time around its Rantaro knocking on Tsumugi's dorm room door.   
  
He's trying to ignore the way his body aches and moving sends a flare of pain down his spine. There's a dull throbbing at the base of his neck, but he has a fairly high pain tolerance and this is easier to shut out than an intense headache. Besides, he needs to focus on what matters.   
  
Tsumugi opens the door slowly and looks like complete shit.   
  
Her hair is a mess, like she'd run her hands through it over and over again on top of a serious case of bed head. Her glasses are askew on her face, like she'd put them on haphazardly or as an afterthought, and they do nothing to hide the deep bags under her eyes. Her clothes are rumpled and her shoes are missing, and she winces with any large movement.   
  
Rantaro wonders if he looks the same.   
  
"What do _you_ want?" She spits. Despite her venomous tone, she moves to let him into the room and shuts the door quietly behind him.   
  
"What happened?"   
  
"Oh, you know," she waves her hand around in a vague gesture, hissing in pain as she lowered her arm, "made a couple of bad decisions."   
  
"You died."   
  
Tsumugi sighs, gingerly putting her hands in her lap and staring at them, "Yeah, I did."   
  
"How?"   
  
"I tried to kill Gon- Gokuhara. I tried to kill Gokuhara. I took him to the second floor and ran at him with a knife. I actually managed to cut him, too, but he shoved me out the window. He's pretty strong, so-"   
  
"You fell." Rantaro concluded.   
  
"Yup!"   
  
The morning announcement played in the background.   
  
Rantaro took a deep breath, "And when you died, I collapsed in pain and passed out."   
  
"Oh, really?" Her eyes widened, and she finally straightened her glasses. "That's plainly what happened to me after I killed you."   
  
"I think that's what happens. If either of us die, this whole thing resets-"   
  
Tsumugi gasped, putting a finger in the air, "This is like that one anime! Oh, what was it called..."   
  
"Shirogane, please..." Rantaro would've given all his family's money to be stuck with _anyone_ else.   
  
"Sorry, sorry." She didn't sound very sorry, "This is plain serious, I know. So when either of us die, the other faints and the loop resets. This is a bit of a problem..."   
  
"You don't say."   
  
Tsumugi frowned and retorted, "Well, I plainly don't know what you came here to accomplish-"   
  
"I'm proposing a truce of sorts."   
  
That stunned Tsumugi into silence. She blinked widely at him.   
  
"I'm proposing a truce... or maybe an agreement is a better way of saying it," Rantaro repeated, "Because clearly you can't kill me, and I have no desire to kill you even if you are the mastermind, not that I'd be able to anyway without going through this _again."_   
  
"An agreement...? With the mastermind? Do you even realize what you're saying?"   
  
Probably not, "Yes."   
  
"Okay, fine. I agree not to kill you or whatever it is you want, I just ask that you leave me alone." Tsumugi made to stand, and Rantaro grabbed her wrist to stop her.   
  
"Last time I left you alone you got yourself killed for trying to start the game."   
  
"And I plainly learned from that mistake. Now please, just... leave. I want to get ready before going to breakfast."   
  
Rantaro nodded and released her wrist, leaving Tsumugi alone in her dorm.   
  
(Tsumugi mutters obscenities under her breath as he leaves, cursing whatever powers stuck her here with the one person she would rather die than work with).   
  
\--   
  
The day is mostly the same as last time (last loop? Rantaro doesn't really know what to call any of this). He goes to breakfast immediately after leaving Tsumugi's room, so Kaede doesn't have to come get him, and Tsumugi arrives late with her long hair damp but looking remarkably more composed than he last saw her.   
  
Eat, convince Ryoma not to kill himself for everyone because it would start the killing game and Rantaro "has a plan" (he doesn't, he doesn't know why he said that), ask Toujo for a tea to help alleviate pain, which she delivers quickly. Korekiyo is still reading that book but Angie and Tsumugi are nowhere to be seen.   
  
Rantaro nods politely at Korekiyo but decides not to stay with him too long. He's not really in the mood to go through the same conversation he just had.   
  
Instead of looking for Tsumugi he sits in the grass outside of the academy and tries to come up with ways to stop the killing game.   
  
That's his number one goal, to stop the game before it starts. There has to be a way, and knowing the mastermind's identity is a huge step in what he hopes is the right direction.   
  
Tsumugi was right, he couldn't just tell people she was the mastermind and expect them to believe him over her. If he caught her in the hidden room, though...   
  
Rantaro twists his rings and pieces together ideas, watching absent-mindedly as Himiko and Tenko walk past towards the Shrine of Judgement, followed closely by Angie, and later as Maki storms by, stubbornly ignoring Kaito as he tries to catch her attention.   
  
Eventually, his thoughts shift to other things. The killing game, sure, but the whole time loop mess was enough to make him doubt himself in every way. Who's to say that, even if he did manage to keep everyone alive, he would be able to get out of the loop? Who's to say they would find a way out of here? Would he be able to save anyone anyway? He'd failed so far, and having to work with Tsumugi definitely wouldn't make things any easier. Kokichi ran past, holding a wrench he probably stole from Miu's lab, and Rantaro can't help but feel a little guilty (the image of Kokichi's body in the hidden room tugged at his mind). Even if _this_ Kokichi was fine, what happened to the other one? He thinks of Ryoma and Rantaro feels his eyes sting. His vision goes cloudy, but he blinks away any oncoming tears and shakes his head freely.   
  
There's no time for that.   
  
Rantaro stands and brushes off his pants before going to find someone who could help him.

(Maybe he does have a plan after all.)  
  
\--   
  
This time, Kaito brings eight people to the game room.   
  
Angie, Himiko, Tenko, Maki, and Kaito (of course) have been part of the group each and every time, as well as Rantaro himself, but last time Gonta had been lured aside. Korekiyo had never been a part of the group (for good reason, Rantaro thinks, because Kaito's whole plan is based around fighting Monokuma and the exisals and Korekiyo doesn't exactly seem like the kind of person you'd bring to a fight) but he'd come along at Rantaro's request.   
  
Korekiyo was probably one of the perfect people to help Rantaro. Though he'd love to work with Kokichi, the supreme leader was just too unpredictable, whereas Korekiyo was certainly strange, but... trustworthy.   
  
Well, not trustworthy. Rantaro doesn't trust Korekiyo, or anyone for that matter. This isn't really the kind of situation you can trust strangers in, and Rantaro doesn't trust easily anyway. But, he enjoys Korkeiyo's company enough and he's one of the only people who would willingly go along with Rantaro's plan, despite not being told what said plan is and the fact that Rantaro has hardly made himself out to be a trustworthy individual.   
  
But regardless, Korekiyo joins the seven others in the game room for the first time--although, come to think of it, there is no "first time" to anyone else, just to Rantaro (and Tsumugi, he supposes). Kaito begins his "beat up the exisals" speech, and Maki calls it stupid again and it's like nothing has changed at all.   
  
It's like nothing is wrong, and admittedly that makes Rantaro feel just a little ill.   
  
He looks around the circle and knows that, somehow, he wants to help these strangers. Tenko is glaring at Kaito, but glances fondly at Himiko every once in a while and whispers softly to the mage, who just nods and mentions needing MP before grabbing onto Tenko's arm and holding tight. Tenko's face reddens and Rantaro worries she's about to explode. Angie laughs from the side and sketches in a small notepad in her lap without looking at the paper and occasionally adds her own comments about her god and how he would help them in their endeavors. Kaito has a foot on his seat and a fist in the air as he yells heroically, and Gonta nods along before going back to the AV room to watch his bug movies. Korkeiyo is off respectively to Rantaro's side, sat in a proper manner that looks extremely uncomfortable to Rantaro. Maki sits alone, not really glaring as much as she is just staring disdainfully. She's someone Rantaro would be interested in getting to know, if the circumstances were any different. They all are, actually.   
  
He hates the circumstances, absolutely hates them.   
  
That stupid murder video starts playing, music blaring from the monitors, and that's really just another thing Rantaro hates. He could make a list. Maybe he should, he's pretty sure writing things down is supposed to be therapeutic or something.   
  
He waits a few minutes before tapping his foot next to Korekiyo's.   
  
"I'll be right back, I just need to go to the bathroom, you don't need to wait for me or anything," Rantaro waves.   
  
"Ah, allow me to accompany you. It is safer to travel in pairs," Korekiyo stands and asks. He knows the answer, but Rantaro nods nonetheless and mutters his barely audible thanks.   
  
"Be back soon, okay! No screwing around, we've still got to talk strategy!" Kaito shouts over the noise.   
  
The two leave the room and Korekiyo raises an eyebrow as Rantaro turns away from the staircase towards the back entrance of the library.   
  
Something in the back of his mind pricks at him, wondering why he chose this entrance, or even why he comes here every time despite knowing he can't get into the door. Part of him simply feels drawn to the library and specifically the door, but he can't explain why and it sort of scares him.   
  
Would he die here each time if it wasn't him stuck in this loop? Would he return here over and over again unknowingly, only to die every time without fail?   
  
Rantaro opens the hidden door in a daze, and everything plays out just like it did last time he was here except it doesn't. Rantaro plants his feet into the carpet, forbidding his body from moving towards the camera flash, but Korekiyo is there and _he_ takes Rantaro's place. He hums in inquiry and walks over to it, blinking rapidly when it flashes in his face, and leans down to examine it.   
  
And Rantaro knows exactly what's about to happen right before it actually happens, but he can't move. It's like his body just shuts down, frozen in place as he watches yet another tragedy unfold. Rantaro opens and closes his mouth, trying to get any warning to sound, to tell Korekiyo to stand up or move, but all he can manage is a choked noise that can't be heard over the music.   
  
Just like that first time, Tsumugi emerges from the room except now he can see her, and he's not her victim. With Korekiyo bent over as he is, Tsumugi has the perfect opportunity to slam the shot put ball onto the anthropologist's head and Korekiyo drops to the ground and Rantaro wants to scream. Korekiyo is dead, surely, completely dead, and his blood is steadily staining the carpet and at some point Rantaro had taken a step forward but he feels like there's ice in his veins and he can't move. The music shuts off, casting the library into a deafening silence, Korekiyo is dead and Tsumugi turns on her heel and rushes at Rantaro with crazed madness and a slimmer of hope in her eyes.   
  
His body finally catches up with his mind and he snaps into action, his hands reaching up to grab Tsumugi's arms as she tries to bludgeon him, and she's squirming and shaking to try and free herself, but Rantaro holds tights and out of the corner of his eyes he sees pink.   
  
Pink, the puddle growing larger by the second, and not only is it a horribly ugly shade but it looks out of place on Korekiyo's color scheme.   
  
_This is the second person I've watched have their head caved in in front of me,_ Rantaro thinks, and part of him wants to stop resisting and let Tsumugi finish her job, because he could have stopped Korekiyo's demise if only he had moved or screamed or done something, but that's another thing for the list of Rantaro's uselessness and it's consequences.   
  
Shuichi, Kaede, Tenko, and Kaito burst into the room, and Rantaro doesn't dare take his eyes off Tsumugi. She's staring right into his eyes, trying to communicate something he can't quite understand using only eye contact.   
  
Tenko peals Tsumugi away from Rantaro, a bit hesitant to use such force on a girl but deciding that restraining her for their safety was more important. She sees Korekiyo lying on the ground in a pool of violent pink blood and screeches, Kaito following suit when he, too, sees the body.   
  
The body discovery announcement plays, and Shuichi attempts to speak to Tsumugi, to ask her what she did, but Tsumugi shuts down too.   
  
Rantaro feels like he's floating, and no one's words stick and he has no idea what Kaede's saying, and he meets Tsumugi's eyes once more before she ducks her head and glares daggers into the ground.   
  
Everyone crowds into the library, and Shuichi steps over Korekiyo's cooling body to remove the camera from the bookcase, squinting in confusion when the flash goes off.   
  
Monokuma pops into existence on the library floor in front of everyone, and waves excitedly.   
  
"Puhuhu! Puhuhuhuhu! The first murder, oh, this is so exciting! The murderer, the blackened, would they please raise their hand to claim the first blood perk!"   
  
Rantaro had never taken his eyes off Tsumugi, but the four that entered the library and caught her stared at her too. She didn't meet anyone's eyes, just continued glaring at the carpet below her feet. Her shoulders raised almost mechanically as she took a deep breath and straightened her back. Lifting her head high, she began staring back at those four, still pointedly refusing to look at Rantaro.   
  
Shuichi backed down immediately, the eye contact probably making him uncomfortable. Kaito just frowned, and Tenko gave a strained smile, but Kaede kept her gaze on the cosplayer.   
  
Tsumugi didn't put her hand up.   
  
Monokuma laughed and laughed, declaring that a trial would take place after a certain amount of time for investigation.   
  
When Monokuma left, the room exploded in noise.   
  
"What the fuck-" 

"What happened?" 

"I'm so fucking confused-"   
  
"Gonta not understand!"   
  
Eventually, Kaede had enough of people screaming over each other and screamed even louder.   
  
"HEY!" Seeing she had everyone's attention, she continued, "I know we're all really confused and scared right now, but we should use what time we have to investigate fully! We can talk and clear things up later, but for now we need to focus on finding out what happened to Shinguji!"   
  
Pumping her fists in the air, Kaede finished, "I know we can do it, so come on!"   
  
Shuichi gestured to Tsumugi and Rantaro, "We should keep these two in seperate pairs, just... uhm, just in case."   
  
Kaito offered to watch over Rantaro, and Tenko pulled Tsumugi into a group to "keep her away from rude degenerates". Rantaro wondered if she was just in denial that Tsumugi would kill someone. The thought kind of makes him want to cackle--no one knows anyone here, not really, so saying "they don't look like the type" was pointless. Anyone here could be a killer, anyone here could snap and murder someone, depending on the circumstances given. He didn't want to think the worst of people, but he didn't have much of a choice.   
  
Shuichi made it pretty clear that he didnt want Tsumugi or Rantaro near the body, or the crime scene, so Kaito pulled Rantaro back to the game room. The latter just let it happen, still feeling far too seperated from his body.   
  
In the game room, Kaito clapped a hand on Rantaro's shoulder, helping ground him. He gave Rantaro a moment, just staring in concern as the green-haired boy gathered this thoughts. Eventually, Kaito's curiosity must've gotten the better of him.  
  
"Hey, bro, are you doing alright? What the hell happened in there, man?!" 

Rantaro just shook his head, "It's my fault, I could've-"   
  
"Bullshit, it's your fault, unless you killed him then this isn't your fault. Just tell me what happened, okay?"   
  
Oh boy, where to even start, "... I found a hidden door in the library and wanted to check it out. Shinguji went with me, as you know, and there was a flash by the bookcase and he went to investigate it and," _Deep breath, try not to tell Kaito that you just stood there and watched,_ "Shirogane came from the door and smashed a shot put ball onto his head. She tried to come for me, too, but that's when you came in."   
  
"Alright, okay, shit," Kaito muttered, "shit, this wasn't supposed to happen."   
  
"I could've stopped her, you know? I could've helped-"   
  
"No!" Kaito yelled, "Quit screwing around, this is all Shirogane's fault. If anything, we should've tried harder to stop something like this, fuck..." He shook his head and sighed deeply, "This shouldn't have happened, man. We could've taken the exisals."   
  
Rantaro cracked a flimsy smile, "Sure."   
  
The doors to the game room opened and Shuichi poked his head in.   
  
"Uh, sorry if I'm interrupting anything, I just wanted to gather alibis and, uh, maybe an account of what happened in the library before I got there, if that's okay?"   
  
"Nah, it's cool! We were just chatting, come on in, don't be shy!" Shuichi followed Kaito's request and came to stand in front of the astronaut. Now that he was closer, Rantaro could see how pale Shuichi was, and how his forehead glistened with sweat and how Shuichi was trembling ever so slightly. The poor boy look so close to passing out, and if he was being honest Rantaro felt similarly. Then he felt bad, because it was his fault any of them were in this situation in the first place.   
  
Kaito retold Rantaro's story (albeit more energetically and a bit over-dramatically, Rantaro had to step in to correct a few things that probably got lost in the explanations) to Shuichi, the detective nodding along and making notes on his monopad.   
  
"Did she say anything to you, Amami? B-before we came in, I mean."   
  
Rantaro shook his head, "Nothing, sorry."   
  
Shuichi cupped his hand over his mouth (something he must do in deep thought, because he did that during Ryoma's trial, too, if Rantaro remembered correctly) and hummed, seemingly satisfied with the information.   
  
"I have other evidence to go over, so I'm sorry but I can't stay. I'll see you guys later, okay?" Then, looking directly at Rantaro, just barely avoiding eye contact, "We'll find out the truth, so dont worry."   
  
Something about that didn't really seem comforting.   
  
"Hey, Saihara's right, you know! It'll all be okay, we'll be fine!" Kaito pulled Rantaro into an awkward one-armed side hug, "We'll figure everything out, so don't worry at all! I'll make sure everything goes just fine!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hey monokuma this ""game"" of yours isnt very fun!


	7. but im nothing but a stone cold killer who's scared

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> they are just straight up not having a good time right now

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i was gonna post this earlier but i my internet went down and then ao3 had a funky moment so im just posting it now at *checks clock* nearly midnight
> 
> this chapter is a little long but thats just how trial chapters be really. also this is just rantaro thinks about the game amsr im sorry

Everything was not going fine.  
  
Rantaro lost count of how many times he'd retold his side of the events in the library. It made him extremely weary, and having to stand next to Tsumugi the entire time really wasn't helping. He wishes she would just give in and confess already, to get it over with, but she had only said one thing since they stepped into the trial room.  
  
Also, knowing you were screwed no matter the outcome kind of sucks, if Rantaro's honest.  
  
It was going fine at first, really. Go through alibis, discuss the possibilities, examine evidence, and everything led to one person and one person only-- Tsumugi. They had suspected Rantaro for a bit, but without Tsumugi presenting her testimony they didn't see any other option. The pictures from the camera clearly showed Tsumugi leaving the hidden room in a rush, and then Rantaro struggling to keep her away.  
  
Shuichi had put all their cards on the table, laid all the evidence out, and practically solved the "mystery" in record time, and Tsumugi refused to speak up. Even as she was being outed as the mastermind, she just let it happen.  
  
Korekiyo's portrait sat innocently on his podium, the anthropologist's grayed out face covered in a bloody X. It wasn't really helping, and if anything it only made Rantaro feel worse about all this.  
  
Was it worth fighting? If he was going to restart everything again, is there really a point to delaying it? Surely Tsumugi knew she was dead no matter what, because if they voted wrong then Rantaro died and they restarted, and if they voted correctly then she died and still restarted. He didn't understand why she was still fighting, staring straight ahead intensely and yet looking at nothing.  
  
(If he restarted, would he even be able to look Korekiyo in the eyes again? He struggled looking at Kokichi without being overcome with guilt, and Ryoma was manageable but still unpleasant, why would it be any different with Korekiyo.) 

The only thing Tsumugi had said was right after Shuichi finished his conclusion of the events if Shinguji's death, but it had been enough to make Shuichi visibly falter.  
  
"Are you sure," She had asked.  
  
"The fuck are you talking about? Let's just get on with it!" Miu exclaimed, glaring at Tsumugi from her podium.  
  
"I'm just plain asking Saihara if he's absolutely sure, is all. All our lives are at stake, you know?"  
  
"I-uh-I mean," Shuichi stammered quietly, his hands holding tight onto the brim of his cap.  
  
"And I'm _plain_ saying I don't give a shit! We don't need to listen to your mind game bullshit, miss murderer!"  
  
"Gonta not understand? Is Shirogane the culprit? Why Saihara stop?"  
  
Kaede's eyes shifted uncomfortably, "Um, Shirogane? We've already been through the evidence, so... "  
  
"I think she's just trying to mess with us," Rantaro stated, "We've all agreed that Shirogane has to be the culprit, right? Saihara concluded the case, of course she'd try to put us off. Besides, we don't need her confession in order to vote."  
  
"Ah, but, wouldn't we like to be certain before voting?" Kirumi asked.  
  
"Well, Shittygane's obviously just gonna fucking lie or some shit, so..." Miu threw her hands in the air, "Why don't we just call an end to this stupid fucking thing!"  
  
"Our lives are at stake, Iruma! You cannot simply end the trial because you want to," Kiibo frowned in exasperation.  
  
Kokichi muttered something about Kiibo not being included in "our lives" because "how can you take the life of something that never had one" (Rantaro wondered if he'd ever find out why Kokichi treated Kiibo like that, but probably not; Kokichi had his secrets) and everyone was just stood there at a loss.  
  
From his podium, Monokuma started to speak, "Are we at a standstill? Are we split down the middle? Ohhh, this is so exciting, I can finally show off my amazing morphonomical trial grou-"  
  
"There's no need for that," Tsumugi shook her head, "I'll tell you why you shouldn't be so confident in your answer. There's one big hole in your arguement, and I won't accept a vote until it's solved. There were witnesses that say I was in the dining hall until right before the murder. Obviously I was in the library, and the cameras show me leaving the mastermind's room, but how did I get there? There isn't enough time for me to leave the dining hall and kill Korekiyo. How did I get into the mastermind's room from the dining hall without being seen?."  
  
"So what are you saying?" Kaede asked.  
  
"I'd like to present my version of events, If you'll listen."  
  
Kaede met Shuichi's eyes and the two had a secret conversation. After looking at each other for a while, they nodded and Kaede said, "Go ahead."  
  
"First, I'd like you to listen to my testimony fully. I am not the mastermind!" She pushed her glasses up, "I left the dining hall to go to the bathroom, Iruma and Toujo can plainly back me up on that. I went to the bathroom and found a secret passageway in the utility closet, I was just a bit anxious with the time limit and decided to look around and found it! I followed it into the hidden room in the library, and saw camera feeds of what was happening. What I saw... "  
  
Tsumugi turned to face Rantaro, eyes lit up with an intensity that made his skin crawl, "I saw Amami killing Shinguji, and decided to intervene. It is true I tried to kill Amami, but it was only in self defense. I plainly feared for my life!"  
  
Tenko nodded as though this made perfect sense, and Rantaro felt his stomach drop.  
  
Of course she would try to fight. Even if she knew she was doomed, better him executed than her. Rantaro glanced around the circle, noticing even the slightest changes in his classmates expressions.  
  
Gonta seemed understandably confused, and Shuichi had his hand over his mouth again. Kaede was frowning, eyes flicking between Rantaro and Tsumugi. Tenko had shouted something in relief, saying she knew this crime reeked of degenerates, and Himiko sleepily agreed despite the fact that she looked doubtful. Kokichi's eyes glinted, an excited smile resting on his face. He seemed to be enjoying this.  
  
Rantaro met Kokichi's eyes and the supreme leader's smile grew exponentially.  
  
_Of course. He's fairly good at detecting lies, right, surely he knows she's lying,_ he thought. Then, more reasonably, _why would he help me._  
  
Kokichi yawned and looked over his fingernails, "How did you get the weapon from Amami's hands? He's big and strong, y'know, I doubt he'd let go of it easily, even if he can be a bit of a wimp."  
  
Tsumugi blinked and answered easily, "He had dropped it when he saw Shinguji on the ground. I plainly think he was horrified at what he'd done."  
  
"Amami? Did you realize how _awful_ you were for killing Shinguji and drop the murder weapon?"  
  
Rantaro tried to plaster on a calm smile. He hoped it was working, "Of course not. I never even held the shot put ball, because I didn't kill Shinguji."  
  
"This would be easier if we had fingerprint technology," Shuichi muttered.  
  
Rantaro felt unreasonably ill. Two versions of the events, two different stories from the only witnesses, who would everyone believe?  
  
"Isn't this interesting!" Kokichi cackled, "So many mysteries, so many lies!"  
  
"The fuck do you mean, so many lies? Which of them is lying, fuckface?"  
  
"Well, whore," Kokichi answered Iruma, a sinister smile on his face, "Both of them!"  
  
The courtroom exploded in excitement, and Rantaro felt sweat build up on his forehead.  
  
_Both_ of them?  
  
"I'll give them each an opportunity to explain themselves before I start hating them forever! I don't like liars, you know~"  
  
Rantaro just stared at Kokichi in shock, and if he looked to the side he would see Tsumugi doing the same, barely concealing her rage behind a mask of confusion.  
  
"I-I plainly don't know what I've lied about... I'm telling the tru-"  
  
"Nope! Sorry, but that's wro~ong!" Kokichi was definitely enjoying this too much.  
  
"Uh, I don't think I've lied about anything-" Rantaro started.  
  
Kokichi cut him off, "Well, think harder!"  
  
Oh. Oh _no._ Rantaro can only think of one thing he'd lied about (at least, one thing that was relevant) but how? Kokichi couldn't have known about that, could he? 

Rantaro reached into his pocket and watched Kokichi's eyes light up. _So he does know about that_.  
  
He pulled out his survivor's perk, and held it up, feeling another wave of unease wash over him. "I... think I know what Ouma's talking about. I didn't find the door by chance, I have... this. It's," he switched it on and held it to face the circle, "a complete map of the academy. I got it at the start of the game."  
  
"That's kind of suspicious, isn't it Amami?" Kokichi sang, bouncing around on his heels.  
  
Rantaro didn't bother answering that, he knew very well how suspicious it made him look.  
  
"I still don't know my lie! I've been completely honest!" Tsumugi cried.  
  
Kokichi's expression fell, becoming entirely blank, "Maybe I'll help jog your memory then! How did you just _suddenly_ decide to look around in the girl's bathroom? There are a bunch of more likely places for something to hide."  
  
"I was already in the girl's bathroom! It was a convenient place to start." Tsumugi challenged.  
  
"Reeeally? And why did you decide to run into a _hidden passage_ that wasn't supposed to be found, alone, as a time limit was approaching?"  
  
"I-I didn't have time to get anyone else!"  
  
"And why would you decide to run into an active murder when you were in a safe place? Most people are a lot more selfish than that, you know?"  
  
"It just... happened! I didn't think about it!"  
  
"Stop interrogating her, menace!" Tenko yelled.  
  
"You know, you know," Kokichi jumped up and down to grab everyone's attention. When he saw everyone's eyes on him, his face twisted into something terrifying, "I _really hate_ murderers! If I let one just walk away, I'd probably kill myself! That's a lie, but I do really hate murderers! They're horrible, despicable, and they don't deserve my mercy! So, Tsumugi Shirogane, I'm not sure I believe you!"  
  
"I don't need you to believe me! But," Tsumugi turned to everyone else and held her podium in a death grip, "I'm telling the truth, please!"  
  
Rantaro shook his head, "She's not, I swear. I didn't kill anyone."  
  
"Alright, I've had enough of this!" Monokuma screeched, "Iiiiits voting time! Will you make the right choice, or the dreadfully wrong one? Oh, I can't wait to see the results!"  
  
The screen on his podium lit up, and Rantaro numbly pressed down on Tsumugi's icon. The thrity seconds ticked by much faster than the trial for Ryoma, but everyone had the same nervous energy. Rantaro wondered if everyone felt as sick as he did.  
  
Zero, the flash and pop of confetti poppers, and they had voted correctly, and they had voted for Tsumugi.  
  
To Rantaro's horror, it wasn't unanimous. Four people in this courtroom believed Tsumugi, four people thought he was the killer. (Is she had more time, would that number increase? Would he be the one facing his own execution?)  
  
Monokuma's red eye glinted viciously, and his shrill voice sounded, "Congratulations! You've voted correctly, the killer of Korekiyo Shinguji is indeed Tsumugi Shirogane! Puhuhuhu, to think something like this would happen!"  
  
"So, I mean, that means Shirogane's the mastermind, right? We can all go home now?" Himiko groaned from Tenko's side.  
  
"Of course not." Tsumugi spat, extremely displeased, anger written all over her features, "Did you really think everything would end just by finding me? You won't be able to go home until the game is over, and it doesn't end once I'm dead. This changes nothing, isn't that wonderful!"  
  
Rantaro shivered at the look in Tsumugi's eyes. It was insane and unhinged and so, so tired.  
  
"Does that not make you feel soooo hopeless?" Clutching her hands together in front of her chest, she sighed deeply, "It's a shame I won't be able to continue the game. I looked forward to seeing your characters grow!"  
  
"Puhu! Puhuhuhu! Iiiiits punishment time! One execution coooming up, for Tsumugi Shirogane, Ultimate Cosplayer and the mastermind of this killing game!"  
  
She gave one last sad smile, and Rantaro noticed the glimmer of fear in her expression as a chain clasped onto her neck and pulled her backwards, into a door Rantaro didn't know existed. Her glasses flew off her head and cracked on the ground.  
  
That awful big screen flickered to life in front of Monokuma's throne, and Tsumugi appeared in a dark room standing alone on a stage. She didn't look afraid, and Rantaro guessed she knew exactly what was about to happen. If she was the mastermind, did that mean she planned the executions? How could someone come up with something so gruesome, even for themselves. Slowly, spotlights shifted from her to the crowd, a rouwdy bunch of Monokumas in long blue wigs and dark blue school uniforms and rimmed glasses and orange ribbons all fighting to get onto the stage.  
  
Rantaro saw Tsumugi's shoulders shake, and she backed away ever so slowly. When she hit the back of the stage, instead of falling through the curtains she hit a solid wall, and Monokumas burst forth and pushed her into the oncoming crowd. She briefly disappeared below the mass of cosplayers, and when they parted Tsumugi was tied up on the ground, each limb pulled tight by thin pink string.  
  
The Monokumas all pulled out large sewing needles, and each took turns threading pink though Tsumugi's arms, legs, stomach, chest, covering the needles in blood and pulling the thread tighter and tighter, her fingers turning blue from lack of oxygen and all the string cutting into her limbs. By the time they made their way towards her neck, Tsumugi was crying and screaming, kicking weakly and uselessly against her executioners. One giant Monokuma dressed in blond pigtails and Monokuma hairclips and a black and white ensemble dropped a final needle through Tsumugi's throat, and the mastermind stilled.  
  
The screen shut off, and Rantaro's head swam, and suddenly he couldn't think anymore because everything hurt and he felt like he was being stabbed hundreds of times.  
  
Kokichi gave a startled yelp when Rantaro stumbled and collapsed, the last thing the green-haired boy heard before everything went black.  
  
Again.  
  
\--  
  
Rantaro desperately, desperately wants to sit down and cry.  
  
He can't, of course, because that's a waste of time and he should be doing everything he possibly can to stop the game and keep everyone alive (and he doesn't feel as though he deserves it, really, he's failed so far and gotten three innocent people killed), but he's tired and in pain and so so so frustrated with this stupid loop, with Tsumugi, with that _god forsaken morning announcement._  
  
He's losing it a little, but that's fine. He can deal with it--has to deal with it, because no one else should die. If he actually does something this time instead of freezing and standing back, then he can probably find a way to stop the game. Probably. Hopefully.  
  
He should be heading to the dining hall, but somehow his feet move him to the door of the recently executed. Tsumugi's nameplate stares back at him, his fist raised because he wants to knock but _can't_ , and he really shouldn't be here. There's a good chance she'd try to kill him again, or at the very least not want to see him. Even if she does answer Rantaro's questions, who's to say he'll like those answers.  
  
He doesnt know what he's doing, but he knocks anyway.  
  
"Who is it?" Tsumugi calls though the door.  
  
"It's me. Rantaro Amami."  
  
"Go away."  
  
Well, Rantaro had no intentions of leaving her alone, not when he had so much to ask her about.  
  
"I can't do that."  
  
" _Go away._ "  
  
"No, I'm sorry, I can't."  
  
Cracking the door open a tiny amount, Tsumugi peeks out. From the small amount Rantaro could see, Tsumugi looked... rough, to say the least.  
  
"Please go away."  
  
Rantaro shook his head, "I think we need to talk."  
  
She just sighed and stepped aside, allowing Rantaro to enter her room.  
  
Which was a complete mess. There were papers strewn all about the floor, covered in some sort of complex code. Her bed sheets had been thrown across the room, leaving a crumpled hump in the corner, and he could hear the shower running despite the fact that Tsumugi was completely dry and showed no signs of actually getting ready for a shower.  
  
Tsumugi herself had obviously just crawled out of bed, her hair swept crudely over her shoulder and only the base layer of her usual uniform was on, the deep purple bags under her eyes only accented their redness. Rantaro realized her eyes weren't obstructed by her glasses, which sat untouched on her bedside table.  
  
To be fair, Rantaro hadn't even bothered to run a hand through his own hair, and he could practically feel the bags under his own eyes, so he couldn't really judge.  
  
After just staring at each other wordlessly for an uncomfortable amount of time, Rantaro leaned casually (at least, he hoped it looked casual) on the wall and lowly asked, "What was that?"  
  
Tsumugi sighed deeply again instead of a response.  
  
Unfazed, he simply repeated the question, "What was that, Shirogane?"  
  
She slowly walked over to her bed and picked up her glasses, fiddling with them. 

He pressed on, "Why would you even attempt something like that? You _knew_ -"  
  
"Because I had hope!" She yelled, barely holding herself up.  
  
Rantaro didn't want to relate to Tsumugi, of all people. Really, really didn't want to, but in that moment he could see how fatigued and tired and annoyed at everything she was, and he couldn't help it. They were similar in that they were both so close, so so close, to their limit, but they both couldn't afford to break down. For different reasons, of course, but still.  
  
"I had hope that it would work, just _once_ , that you would die and everything would continue on like how it's supposed to! I- no, no." Straightening herself and pushing her glasses onto her head, she continued, "I dont have to explain myself to _you._ "  
  
"No, you don't, that's fine," Rantaro pinched the bridge of his nose, "And you're probably not gonna stop and that's... well, not fine, but there's nothing I can do about that, but... whatever-"  
  
"Are you here to propose another stupid alliance? Because if I'm allowed to be plain honest, I would rather die than work with you."  
  
"Yeah, well, that's something we can agree on. It was never an alliance to begin with. No, I'm not proposing another _agreement_ , considering it didn't work very well last time, did it?"  
  
"I'm not going to apologize. I'm just doing my job, you know?" Tsumugi smirked.  
  
"Your job... as the mastermind. Right, well then I'm doing _my_ job of stopping the game, and that makes us enemies." Rantaro pointed out, frowning ever so slightly.  
  
"So it does. Isn't that plain exciting? Are we in this loop to kill each other over and over and over again until we eventually give up and agree to die of old age? That would make an interesting anime, wouldn't it?"  
  
"Sure it would, if we weren't, you know," He gestured around vaguely, "going through it."  
  
Tsumugi hummed, putting a finger to her lips, "I suppose it's not as fun as it sounds."  
  
Rantaro resisted the great urge to sigh again. This was getting no where, fast. Twisting one of his rings, he drawled, "Why don't I ask for a truce, then."  
  
"A... truce?"  
  
"Yeah. We agree not to kill each other because _obviously,_ it's not going to work no matter how much you want it to. I just want to figure out what's happening and stop the game, I don't need the whole thing resetting repeatedly."  
  
"Is this not exactly like the agreement you wanted to make last time?"  
  
"No, well," His face reddened slightly, "Not that I ever asked in the first place, but I'm not asking for us to work together or anything, I don't really wanted to work with you, you don't want to work with me, so we don't work together! Simple as that, just... maybe don't be so eager to kill me, is all."  
  
He was met with an unreadable expression behind the glare of Tsumugi's glasses as she regarded him.  
  
"A truce..." She tapped her finger against her chin rhythmically to a nonexistent beat, "I suppose... yes, that could plainly work. I'll accept, on one condition!"  
  
"And that is...?  
  
"You keep my status as the mastermind a secret! Tell anyone, and you can expect a knife in your pillow!" She said cheerfully.  
  
"Uh-"  
  
"I'm joking. Sort of, I won't hesitate to kill you if you just out me, of course, that would ruin the whole game and well, I just plainly cannot have that."  
  
It was Rantaro's turn to regard Tsumugi, searching through her expression for something unnoticeable. He didn't want to agree to terms like that, but was there really any other option...? He could be incredibly stubborn, but apparently she could be too.  
  
After a long moment of deliberation, he stuck out a hand, "I agree. A truce, then."  
  
She smiled dully and grasped his hand, "A truce. But we're not friends."  
  
"Oh no, of course not. Enemies, right?"  
  
"Enemies," Her smile grew, and they shook hands in the middle of a cluster of coded scripts.  
  
\--  
  
He never did ask Tsumugi those questions.  
  
That thought strikes him as he stands alone in front of the death road of despair. Hands on his hips and frown on his face, Rantaro stands there analyzing the tunnel entrance and trying to see past all the traps and bombs. The exit sign sits there innocently and Rantaro kind of wants to kick it over. Tsumugi had essentially thrown him out, saying she needed to get ready for breakfast (which had gone fine, the same, and it kind of made Rantaro's head hurt how much nothing changed but him and Tsumugi), and he hadn't gotten to ask anything.  
  
He wants answers. He wants to know why Tsumugi wouldn't take the first blood perk that would have supposedly let her leave. He wants to know why on earth she's so desperate for his death, why, according to her, he's supposed to die. He wants to know if that exit sign is truthful or if it really is just a trick (it's such an obvious trick, too, which only makes him think that its meant to trick them into thinking its a trick, and that thought seems a little too complex for Monokuma but not for, say, the mastermind). He wants to know if Tsumugi was telling the truth when she said the game wouldn't end with her death (not that anyone could kill her anyway without everything resetting, but the implications a claim like that held...). He wants to know if Tsumugi knew anything about the "Rantaro Amami" who wrote the note on his survivor perk. More importantly, he wants to know how he can stop the game before anyone dies, in just one day.  
  
If this loop had chosen _any other time_ than the morning of final day of the time limit, he might have a better chance. But he cant dwell on the what-ifs, because that's a pretty good way to get lost in your head and Rantaro needs literally anything other than that right now.  
  
Focusing back on the death road of despair, Rantaro thinks there has to be some sort of control panel for the thing. Some button or something that could turn all the traps off, because otherwise how would anyone ever get through, even if they were on Tsumugi's side? Unless even she wasn't meant to get through...  
  
He stepped into the tunnel, pushing the first obstacle, the large gate, aside. There was almost a zero percent chance he could reach the end--if there even was an end--when all sixteen of them couldn't. He makes his way past the next obstacle anyway. What's the worst that could happen?  
  
(Death, the worst that could happen is death. But, if he dies, he can just try again next loop. If he tries enough, could he eventually reach the end? Was there an end? What would he find? Maybe the tunnel just went on and on forever, or dropped into a bottomless pit, or just led to a blank wall with nothing remarkable about it. If there was an exit, would he be willing to kill himself in a possibly doomed attempt to reach it?)  
  
He can see cages in the distance, and he momentarily zones out and catches his foot on the floor right as he goes to jump over a gap, and instead of jumping he flings himself into the water face first.  
  
_Great job, real smooth._  
  
He's captured by a machine in the floor and taken back to the entrance of the tunnel.  
  
Three more unsuccessful attempts (the bombs got him on his second and third tries, burning his shirt up, and the cages got him the fourth, which was incredibly frustrating and he may have bruised his toes kicking the side of the cage) later and he decided that it was time to look elsewhere. He'd already looked around the school in one of the past loops, but who's to say he didnt miss anything. Besides, he was getting no where fast, and he was tired and filthy, so maybe coming back later would give him more energy to try again.  
  
Rantaro begins the walk of shame to his dorm room in a shirt that's definitely seen better days and pants that are just a little crispy.  
  
\--  
  
There is nothing in the school that even _slightly_ resembles a hidden passage.  
  
Beyond the doors and areas Rantaro knows are opened later with more strange objects, and the hallway inside the girl's bathroom, there's nothing that leads anywhere, or opens anything.  
  
It's almost worrying how much _nothing_ there is in the school. There are a a few areas that have a couple benches that students would be able to hang around in and talk in between classes, but otherwise there's not a lot that really makes the building a school. There are three classrooms at most (at least that they have access to), and the labs are made specifically for this group of kids, which just seems like an inefficient way of running things, remaking labs for every incoming group of students. In fact, the school is still under construction as he looks around, the exisals stomping around outside, so unless they demolished the top floors of the thing before setting this group loose (but with the available floors looking so... natural and abandoned, that seems a bit strange) he's pretty sure this place was never actually used as a school. Whoever made it did so knowing exactly who was coming, if the labs and dorm nameplates were any indication, so... either this had been planned for a long time before being set in motion, or there was something else going on here.  
  
It makes him think. Whoever put them into this killing game (Tsumugi? Maybe it wasn't her, he doesn't know if she's working alone, and the idea that she _is_ working alone seems ridiculous. This is simply too much for one person to accomplish without a lot of time, and unless Rantaro's eyes are failing him, Tsumugi isn't that old) knew they were coming, knew who they were, what they looked like, what their talents are (do they know Rantaro's too? It's simply labeled as his lab on the survivor perk's map without any indication of his talent, so...? If they do, that's a whole other bundle of questions), and who-knows-what else about them.  
  
If their captors knew that much, had that much power, maybe this was a lot bigger than just Tsumugi and Monokuma.  
  
Rantaro shivers. That's certainly not the most comforting idea.  
  
He tries looking around outside, cursing under his breath when he doesn't find anything remarkable, and something tugs at the back of his mind, a hazy and indistinct shape of red and black. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> fun fact i had some friends (who arent into dr and don't know much ab this fic) vote on a T or R or 0 poll without context and thats how i decided who "won" the trial and who lost. the results (how many votes for each person) weren't impacted, just who won, but i had several ways the trial could've gone written out and i couldn't decide what i liked best. ill just have to use those other endings someplace else ;)


	8. two hundred fifty feet deep in a cave of my destruction my escape plan is still under construction

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> oh god oh no why would you do this

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i dont really have any notes for this chapter id just like to say that the next one, chapter nine, has to go through some serious revisions before i post it so if (and its a big if, idk how long itll take) that chapter doesnt come for a while please bear with me

Rantaro sits in the game room with his leg bouncing anxiously and wishes he didn't know exactly what Kaito was saying.   
  
He's nervous. That much is obvious, because he's twisting his rings and his knee is hopping up as down furiously and his eyes flicker around the room, but everyone else probably thinks it's because of the time limit. And, well, it kind of is, but less because he could be ripped apart by the exisals in an hour and more because someone has _always_ died before the time expired.  
  
Ryoma- or would it be Rantaro himself first? He did die in the library at the very beginning of all this, so it was probably Rantaro first, then Ryoma, then Tsumugi (not really because of the time limit, but she had died before it all the same), and finally Korekiyo. Not once had they managed to pass the time limit.   
  
Rantaro was a bit curious about whether or not Monokuma really _would_ pull out the exisals and kill them all. He sure didn't think so, that seemed like an extremely unsatisfactory ending.   
  
But regardless, Kaito made the same speech he'd heard what, five times now? This time, the original seven sat in a sort of circle, some paying more attention than others.   
  
The murder video (Rantaro would've groaned if he wasn't so concerned with appearing pleasant and unbothered) cut Kaito off, and Rantaro had to remind himself that he wasn't, under any circumstances, allowed to leave the game room.   
  
He had decided that, this time, he would stay with the others. Leaving to go see the hidden door had only cause his death--and Korekiyo's death--and he hadn't actually managed to do anything with it. He couldn't open the door, didn't have the key card (Tsumugi probably kept it on her, maybe he should try to pickpocket her), and there wasn't anything else that could be done to it. The door was thick and heavy, not the kind one could easily pry open, especially not empty handed. This time, he was going to just... wait it out. In theory, there was no reason any of them had to kill (other than the pressure of a looming death, and the knowledge that they couldn't leave unless they murdered someone, and the first blood perk, but really, no reason). Rantaro had talked to Ryoma, hopefully doing enough to discourage the former tennis player from sacrificing himself, so maybe nothing would happen.   
  
Except, something did happen. Gonta left, of course, to go get motivated for a fight in the AV room, and this time Angie had followed.   
  
Rantaro immediately tensed. He hadn't heard anything about this in any of the other loops--it was always just Gonta, right? So why would Angie want to go with him? He didn't think she would be interested in Gonta's "bug movie", but...   
  
"Dammit, that's two people down," Kaito muttered, "That's fine, as long as they're getting ready for the big showdown! We've got some strong people here, I'm sure we can defeat the exisals!"   
  
Maki sighed, "Did you forget the exisals are robots? There's no way we could go against them, and not with a plan this stupid."   
  
"Hey, what are you calling stupid-"   
  
"Tenko agrees," Tenko agreed, "She thinks we should come up with a better plan. Between Harukawa, Yumeno, and Tenko we should be able to think of something better than this degenerate thought of."   
  
"Nyeh... I don't have enough MP to fight the exisals... I think we should let the others do it..." Himiko groaned. Despite how exhausted she looked, Rantaro noticed how alert the mage's eyes were. She looked horribly anxious even despite her half-lidded eyes.   
  
"We have less than an hour, so you better think of something fast! Besides, I still think my plan is fine..."   
  
"Your plan is just wait for the time to run out and beat the monokubs up! Tenko can think of many reasons that wouldn't work!"   
  
"Maybe I should clarify that this is stupid no matter who's plan we're using. Fighting the exisals will only get us killed."   
  
Rantaro wondered if this was always how the conversation went. He knows Kaito and Tenko went looking for him eventually, but now he's here.   
  
"But we stand a real chance! The exisals can only kill us from so far away-"   
  
"And if they have guns?" Maki cut off, "Then they can shoot you from afar and rip you apart from up close."   
  
"U-uh, Tenko doesn't think the exisals have guns-"   
  
"I thought I saw something that looked like a gun on one of the exisals." Himiko mentioned.   
  
"O-oh!" Tenko stammered, "Then they definitely have guns, of course."   
  
"So we just have to be smarter about these things!"   
  
"How can we be smarter when a degenerate like you is in char-"   
  
"Maybe we should just calm down," Rantaro suggested, "talking over each other isn't going to get us anywhere."   
  
"Man..." Kaito put a hand to his forehead, "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to yell over anyone. I just think we could take them, y'know?"   
  
"Tenko also thinks we can take the exisals but... maybe not with such little time. Tenko would need longer to come up with a plan."   
  
"We don't have any longer." Maki reminds everyone, instantly shattering the energy in the room, "And I still think the idea is ridiculous. We would only be killed."   
  
Rantaro looked to Himiko, the last one to state her opinion. Tenko glared protectively but nudged the small mage to let the girl know it was her turn.   
  
"Nyeh... I think... I think it's a bad idea. I don't have enough MP... and we don't have that many strong people... and the exisals are big and have a bunch of weapons... we don't have anything."   
  
Maki nodded and gestured slightly to Himiko, who looked pleased that someone agreed, "See? Exactly, fighting them now, without any sort of weapon that could even hope to take them down, is just... stupid."   
  
The clock nears 10 pm, and Rantaro foolishly, foolishly has hope for a brief moment. Then the music shuts off and the game room is cast into roaring silence.   
  
Maki stands so fast her chair is flung backwards, her entire body poised and ready to run or fight. Tenko gets into a protective stance in front of Himiko, who jolts so violently Rantaro is surprised she didn't fall onto the floor. Kaito stops dead in his tracks.   
  
No one speaks for a deafening moment, and Rantaro felt like he was frozen to the spot.   
  
The music doesn't shut off unless someone dies, which meant that somewhere, someone was dead. Murdered, or killed themselves, or got into a horrible accident, someone is dead and Rantaro doesn't know where. The body announcement hasn't played yet, which didn't help when there was an unknown victim _somewhere_ in an academy this large.   
  
Angie and Gonta hadn't come out of the game room.   
  
Rantaro's mind ran so fast he almost felt overwhelmed. The body discovery hadn't played, so they wouldn't know anyone was dead unless they knew the reason the music shut off. Did they even know the music had gone off? They were supposed to be watching a movie, right, so maybe it was just too loud? That makes him a bit uneasy, because he feels like Gonta would run in and demand answers if he knew there was a chance someone had died.   
  
He exchanges the quickest of glances with Maki, who seems to understand his worry. She inchest towards the AV room door, motioning to Tenko to stand back (just in case something--or someone--jumped out at them, he guesses), and Rantaro moves to follow her. Kaito trembles and tries to reassure everyone that things are fine, but the astronaut's voice was shaking. Tenko nods, pulls Himiko into the corner of the game room and stands in front of her. Himiko's eyes flick between the doors to the game room, watching for anyone entering.   
  
It wasn't 10 pm yet. Just barely wasn't, it was 9:52, and when the music was first silenced he thought they had made it, that they had successfully waited out the time limit. He kind of hopes Monokuma just got excited and turned it off in preparation for the little slaughter fest that would supposedly happen at 10.   
  
Maki cautiously opens the door, and as it creaks open Rantaro catched a glimpse of pink and yellow, and all of his hopes are crushed.   
  
Angie sat there innocently, her legs crossed and her hair swinging as she nodded her head side to side with her eyes closed. Her yellow cardigan was splattered with blood, as were her stomach and legs, and Rantaro almost thought she was injured.   
  
Then he saw Gonta, and his mind raced to a halt.   
  
The entomologist had a small box cutter lodged in his throat, and expression of horror painted forever on his face as pink blood poured from an open wound not too far from the weapon. He had probably been stabbed twice. Gonta was laid down on a couch in the AV room, his feet dangling over the edge and his arm hanging limply off the side, the poor couch straining under his weight. Blood dripped down onto the floor, staining it that awful gruesome pink.   
  
Rantaro thought of butterflies and a bright smile and berated himself for not acting when Angie followed Gonta into the AV room.   
  
Maki's face steeled, giving away no emotion. From the game room, Tenko must have seen into the AV room because she shrieked, and Rantaro spared a slance over his shoulder to see Himiko's face pale as the body discovery announcement played. Kaito stands uncomfortably to the side, pointedly avoiding Gonta's body.   
  
Shuichi and Kaede flung the game room door open and ran over to the scene, the latter stopping by Himiko and Tenko to make sure they were alright. Kaito claps Shuichi on the shoulder when he walks in. The astronaut doesn't look so good.   
  
Angie just sat across from Gonta, eyes closed and a peaceful smile resting on her face as everyone else piled onto the area with varying horrified exclamations.   
  
Monokuma popped onto existence on the top of the couch Gonta's body laid on.   
  
"Puhuhu! What an interesting turn of events! You kids really know how to keep a bear on the edge of its seat! I was sooo worried I'd have to pull out the exisals, but someone finally snapped! One of you here murdered Gokuhara, boo hoo, but I'm a bear of my word. If you did it, speak up! You get to leave, good for you!"   
  
Instantly, everyone's gaze flicked over to Angie (Maki's face remained impassive in a way that made Rantaro's skin crawl) and the artist finally opened her eyes after a short prayer.   
  
"Angie is the killer! Angie will take the first blood perk!"   
  
Tenko let out a distressed sigh, and Shuichi gave a strangled noise that Rantaro couldn't discern (if the detective was feeling anything like Rantaro was, it was a mix of relief that they wouldn't have a trial and horror as the final hope that it wasn't Angie was destroyed).   
  
Kaito spluttered, "H-How? I mean, why-I-we had a plan! Why?"   
  
"Yes, Tenko would like to know why! Tenko doesn't want to think a girl would be responsible for something like this..."   
  
"You've made a bad decision, kid," Ryoma grumbled.   
  
Rantaro could see Kokichi at the back of the pack, staring right at Gonta's body with wide eyes and a thin smile, but the supreme leader didn't say a thing.   
  
"Hm, hm, hm~" Angie hummed, tilting her head to the side as though listening to something, "Yes yes, God says Angie should tell you why Angie has done this!"   
  
"This better be fuckin good." Miu murmured.   
  
"Angie was just following God's instructions! God told Angie she must leave because Angie is needed elsewhere in the outside world, and God told Angie that if no one else takes the first blood perk then Angie should! Gonta was a good person and God will be most pleased to receive Gonta's soul, and Angie is sorry she had to so this but she must follow God's will."   
  
Maki nodded ever so slightly as though she understood what Angie was saying, killing on orders, but Miu yelled over everyone else.   
  
"You killed Gokuhara over some fake fucking god? You can't fucking justify this, bitch, this is murder, you get that? Murder! Even if you get out no one's gonna listen to your crazy ass!"   
  
"Angie thinks Iruma should stop talking about things she doesn't understand," Angie cut in, her expression darkening, "God is real, and Angie is only following His orders. Iruma should be glad she was not killed tonight, because she would certainly suffer for eternity in the afterlife."   
  
"D-don't say such scary things with a smile..."   
  
"Bah, this is all well and good, but I have a murderer to escort out of here! Angie Yonaga, the murderer of Gonta Gokuhara, come with me please! Actually, why don't we all have a big send-off for your beloved classmate! Everyone gather at the death road of despair!"   
  
Monokuma led Angie out of the AV room, no one even attempting to follow them. Everyone was stood still, trying to comprehend what was going on.   
  
Angie had killed Gonta, Angie was taking the first blood perk and leaving them all here, they were down to fourteen students, Rantaro had failed.   
  
(He should have known, should have done something, should've been more cautious, but there's nothing he can do now but hope to either save the rest or restart the loop.)   
  
One by one, they all slowly made their way to the death road of despair, the entrance of the tunnels Rantaro had been standing by not half a day ago. Which meant that this was really an exit, if they could make it through.   
  
Climbing down into the tunnels, Rantaro and the rest of the students were greeted with an unbelievable sight.   
  
The tunnels had been done up in graduation decoration, a large banner over the tunnel entrance reading "Congrats on Graduating!!" with a small Monokuma in graduation garb smiling in the corners. The Monokubs had donned caps and tassles (Monokid was definitely trying to choke Monodam with it, but considering Monodam was made of metal it wasnt going very well) and Monokuma himself was dressed like a classic school headmaster, holding a large diploma. Confetti and paper rings littered the floor and walls, as well as the big exisal Angie was currently sat in.   
  
"Say whatever goodbyes you have now, or don't, I don't care, but you're not gonna be seeing these students again! Unless they manage to make it out and graduate too, puhuhu!"   
  
The exisal turned the the group, "Um, Angie is sorry she has to leave now, but you shouldn't feel bad! God has blessed you all, and Angie is leaving only because she needs to! If she had a choice, Angie would stay behind and get to know you all! Angie wishes you well, and God says his farewells~"   
  
Monokuma laughed and began leading the exisal through the tunnel, easily batting away and avoiding the traps in the large machine.   
  
The gate closed behind her, and Angie faded from view, leaving the Academy behind.   
  
\--   
  
Rantaro lays in his bed at night and knows he's not going to sleep.   
  
From what he remembers, he's had fits of insomnia before, caused by stress (probably from his search, but to be fair sometimes he just doesn't feel like he deserves to sleep when his sisters could be out there in danger), the only difference is that he had something to do then, to distract himself from the fact that it was ass o'clock and he really shouldn't be awake. This time he has nothing, he can either lay here even longer and hope he passes out, or he can leave his room and get some fresh air.   
  
The floor is cold when his bare feet touch it, and the entire room feels frigid, freezing. Or maybe that's just Rantaro, he can't really tell.   
  
He decides to ignore the overshirt he normally wears despite the fact that it might be colder outside than it is in his room, settling for the long tank top he wore and his usual pants and shoes. He wishes he had clothes that weren't identical. Not that he paid a lot of attention on fashion, because usually he was too busy for things like that, but he was able to appreciate different outfits and small little things like not wearing the same thing all the time (besides, he had quite a lot of clothes, either from his father or just stupid things he bought impulsively while abroad, and it was fun to mix and match them).   
  
Stepping outside, it was colder than he thought it would be, but nothing Rantaro hadn't felt before.   
  
If the academy at night was haunting, the outside grounds were chilling. The school building loomed in the distance, a dark silhouette towering over everything. The grass and the paths were illuminated by the silver moonlight that shone through the giant cage, and it flickered through the dormitory building's windows to give the whole place a cold surreal feeling. It almost felt lonely, not a thing moved outside, nothing living, no wind, and it was completely silent.   
  
It made Rantaro feel just a bit uneasy.   
  
He sat down under a tree facing the dorms, able to see if anyone came out and angling himself so that he could see the academy entrance as well. Maybe this was a bad idea. He was exposed, and the grass was uncomfortable, and the atmosphere made him a little anxious. He doubted anyone would try anything after seeing Gonta like that, but considering they hadn't actually witnessed an execution and they had been shown that there _was_ an exit, he wasn't about to let his guard down.   
  
Actually, they had been shown an exit. There was a way to leave this place, and they knew exactly what it was, all they needed was a way to get past the traps. He should probably ask Miu if she could disable them somehow.   
  
Just as he was about to stand to recheck the death road of despair for control pannels or something, someone else stepped into the cold air from the dorms.   
  
Rantaro and Tsumugi locked eyes in the moonlight, and each of them froze.   
  
Well, wasn't this pleasant.


	9. i never learned to pull myself out of my own damn head

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> just a casual late night chat with your enemy, nothing to see here

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so i was all excited to write this and then i lost motivation and i forced myself to write it, and despite rewriting it several times its still my least favorite chapter so far. this chapter has a bunch of kinda unfun dialogue in it but thats just how it b sometimes
> 
> i was gonna post it two days ago, but i refuse to post a chapter until the next two are finished, and chapter eleven gave me a lot of trouble for no reason, but its here now, so. yee

Awkwardly, Rantaro pat the grass beside him and Tsumugi took the hint, cautiously moving to sit at least three feet away from Rantaro. She had pulled her hair into a ponytail using the orange ribbon she always had on her shirt, and she was wearing only the base layer of her usual outfit, not so dissimilar to Rantaro. She pulled her knees close to her chest when she sat down.   
  
"Did you know Yonaga was going to do that?" Rantaro blurt out without thinking.   
  
Tsumugi stared upwards at the cage, or the stars, he couldn't tell, "No."   
  
"Oh."   
  
Well, if this wasn't the most uncomfortable Rantaro had been all night. But he finally had the opportunity to interrogate the mastermind, and he wasn't going to let it pass by.   
  
Tsumugi must've expected this, because she sighed and turned her body slightly to face him, "Shoot," then, regretting her word choice, "Wait, no, don't shoot, not that, just..."   
  
She sighed again, removing her glasses and rubbing her eyes, "Yeah, whatever, go ahead."   
  
"Well, first, how do I know you're not going to kill me? You don't look armed, but you could be hiding something."   
  
Tsumugi let out a lifeless laugh, "Because in case you haven't noticed, the game is finally on track. I gain nothing from killing you now."   
  
"Is it on track? Is it really?" One look at Tsumugi's expression, her lips pursed and eyes squinting, gave him that answer, "I want to know why you didn't take the first blood perk."   
  
She snorted, "What, that thing? Yeah, no thanks."   
  
"But the alternative was execution-"   
  
She stood and brushed off her skirt, "Come with me."   
  
"That sounds like something a murderer would say."   
  
She huffed, "I'm not going to kill you, I just want to talk somewhere else," then, lowering her voice, "somewhere more private."   
  
And Rantaro understood. They were talking about mastermind things (and things that _technically_ never happened, which would only make them seem insane) right in front of the dormitories, which wasn't really the best place to have secret conversations. Not that Rantaro really cared, because outing Tsumugi as the mastermind might help him in the long run, but it wouldn't make a great arguement for him not being suspicious. If someone walked into their conversation, they might think Rantaro was working with the mastermind (and the people here have already proven their willingness to murder the ringleader).   
  
So he nodded and brushed off his pants and followed Tsumugi into the dark shadows of the academy. She led him into the girl's bathroom (and Rantaro was extremely thankful that it was the middle of the night) and then into the hidden passage, which... didn't really ease Rantaro's worries.   
  
Last time he was here, Kokichi was murdered in front of him right before he, too, was killed. There was no blood on the passage floor, not really, not this time, but he knew it stained the hall nonetheless.   
  
If Tsumugi was bothered by this at all, she didn't show it. In fact, she waltzed down the passage with the confident air of someone who'd done this a million times (which, to be fair, she probably _had_ ).   
  
The passageway opened up into a large room, and Rantaro finally got a proper look the mastermind's hidden room.   
  
The pink and white checkerboard floors were lit up by large square lights hanging from the ceiling, and a short coffee table was surrounded by a deep brown armchair and something at looked like a deformed couch (wasn't it called a chaise lounge or something? there were quite a few at his father's mansion). A similar arrangement was on the other side of the room, leaving the center free to see... whatever was covered by a red blanket. It was connected to a bunch of wires from the walls.   
  
On the sides of two columns (covered in hearts for some unknown reason) were several monitors showing live feeds of the school.   
  
Were there hidden cameras in the academy...?   
  
Tsumugi flicked a switch on the columns and the monitors flickered off, muttering about how "she could live without them for a while" and "if anything happened an alarm would sound". She sat gracefully down on a stool and hugged her knee to her chest again.   
  
"Yeah, I was pretty overwhelmed at first, too."   
  
"Overwhelmed is one word for it... What's with the hearts?" Following Tsumugi's lead, Rantaro sat down, perching himself on the armrest of the chair across from her instead of sitting in it like a normal person.   
  
Tsumugi just shrugged, "I didn't get a say in designing the room."   
  
"Huh," He filed that information away for later, "So... why are we here?"   
  
"Just so we can't be overheard. I doubt anyone would like me just spilling secrets to you," More lifeless laughter, "Actually, I don't know why I'm telling you anything."   
  
"Because I'd figure it out eventually, even if it took me a hundred tries. You know there's no point in prolonging the inevitable. And I'm pretty sure you wouldn't pass up an opportunity to spite our captors. It doesn't seem as though you like them any more than I do."   
  
Tsumugi huffed, "Yeah, I guess I do," She gaze Rantaro a short side glance, "And you'd be wrong."   
  
(She was definitely lying, he didn't need to be Kokichi to tell that.)   
  
Rantaro almost grinned, almost, "So, we're in a private place... why didn't you take the first blood perk. Monokuma says it's a way out, and Yonaga managed to leave, but the way you answered doesn't make it sound good."   
  
"It's... No, it _is_ a way out. If you take the first blood perk, you do get to leave. It's just, well..."   
  
"There's a catch?" He guessed.   
  
"Yeah. They take you to the exit but... you'd be walking into a plain wasteland."   
  
Rantaro's brain took a moment to process that, "A-a wasteland?"   
  
"Yup, a complete wasteland, like nothing living and destroyed buildings and such. The air around the academy is so polluted it's basically toxic. You'd die from lack of oxygen before you got very far."   
  
His heart beat sped up. A wasteland? That couldn't be true, the sky above the cage looked normal. And if there was a wasteland outside the academy, was the rest of the world okay? Were his sisters? What had happened to them-   
  
"So Yonaga got to leave, but-"   
  
"She's probably dead by now," Tsumugi finished, "Any final hope of escape crushed, the realization that you've killed someone for nothing, that despair was plainly the whole idea behind the first blood perk."   
  
"That despair... is that why you didn't take it? You knew you were dead no matter what?"   
  
Tsumugi nodded, "I knew that if I took the perk I would die. At least if I took a trial there was a chance I could spin a story, make myself seem innocent enough..."   
  
"Uhh," Rantaro stuttered, "You didn't actually say a lot until the end of the trial, though. You just asked if Saihara was sure and didn't say much else until later."   
  
"Oh, yeah," She gave a nervous chuckle and averted her eyes, "I shut down a bit. I'm a great actor, but I just couldn't... I just felt..." Her hands failed around as she tried to search for the words, eventually giving up, "I don't know what happened."   
  
Rantaro just hummed, "I get it."   
  
And he did, really, because he had shut down as Korekiyo was walking towards his doom, and for everything after. It wasn't as though he wanted to, suddenly everything just felt like it was moving too fast and he had felt frozen to the spot and no attempt to move or speak would word. Maybe Tsumugi had felt the same, knowing that she had to speak up because if she didn't, she would die, but she just _couldn't_.   
  
"I was stalling for time. It took me longer than it should have to come up with a story that made sense and fit the evidence, and I knew Saihara would second guess himself if I asked if he was sure." Tsumugi inhaled deeply, looking back to Rantaro, "But enough about that, you had other questions, right? I can't promise answers, but it would be a waste to come all this way just for that."   
  
"What did you mean by wasteland?" He asked, voicing his thoughts, "The sky outside the cage looks fine, and the air in here is completely fine, so unless there's air purifiers or something hidden in the academy, I don't see any way you could be telling the truth."   
  
"That makes sense, I have no reason to tell you the truth anyway," Then Tsumugi frowned deeply, her lips pressed together as if trying to remember something, "The sky is fake. The cage is plainly part of a glass dome that projects the sky, and as far as I know there's plenty of air purifiers in the academy. The outside world..." Was it just Rantaro, or was she sounding more and more unsure of herself, "At least, around the academy, is all gone. Any buildings are crumbling, and there's no life at all... I can't tell you any more."   
  
"Can't tell me any more or just don't remember?"   
  
Tsumugi glared at him, "Can't tell you any more."   
  
Something about the look in Tsumugi's eyes was intensely frightening. The lights reflected pink into the grey-green of her irises, creating a nauseating swirl of colors that made Rantaro's hair stand straight up. Pink was far from his favorite color, and seeing it in the eyes of someone who had killed him, several times, sent a horrible chill up his spine.   
  
He shook his head to clear that thought and continued asking his questions, "Why were you so intent on killing me? You mentioned hoping it would work, I think."   
  
"Oh," Tsumugi smiled sadely, "That's plainly it, I just had hope that it would work, is all. I thought, maybe this time..." She took her glasses off and rubbed her eyes again, muttering, "It was plain stupid, and foolish."   
  
"But why me? Why target me?"   
  
"It was convenient. You were in the perfect position, even with Shinguji there. It's..." _It's what I'm supposed to do,_ wasn't said, but it was on the tip of Tsumugi's tongue, unbeknownst to Rantaro. "It's nothing personal."   
  
(It was kind of personal, but for reasons Tsumugi couldn't explain. Looking at Rantaro made her feel like she should remember something, but she didn't, and she hated it, wanted it to stop.)   
  
"...It wouldn't have anything to do with this, would it?" Rantaro pulled out his survivor perk and dropped it not too kindly onto the table.   
  
Tsumugi just laughed, a genuine hearty laugh that Rantaro didn't feel was appropriate for the situation.   
  
"Oh, oh, no," She ran her fingers through a thick strand of hair, "It has nothing to do with _that_."   
  
"Can you tell me anything about it?" Rantaro asked, kind of desperate to know more about the 'him' that wrote the letter.   
  
"Nope! I don't know a lot about it, actually."   
  
"Really? Nothing at all?" He pleaded.   
  
Tsumugi shook her head, "Nothing at all. I had nothing to do with making it, I only knew you had it. "   
  
Huh. Rantaro sort of wished he had a notepad or something, because this was a lot of information and he was probably going to forget things. Tsumugi had nothing to do with making his survivor perk? That meant, at the very least, it wasn't something she herself created to lure him to his death. If Tsumugi had higher-ups, though, or a coworker of sorts...   
  
"I just have two more questions. One, what did you mean when you said the game won't end even after your death? Obviously I don't get to see what it means, but I want to know anyway." There were a few reasons he wanted to know, other than just curiosity. If the game wouldn't end even after the mastermind's death, that meant there were more people working on the killing game. A team of people, maybe, because six robots and however many moving parts behind scenes couldn't be run effectively by a small group. There had to be someone keeping the warehouse and the kitchen stocked, obviously, and Rantaro hadn't ever seen Tsumugi or the Monokumas doing any of that, and the Monokubs were constantly working on the academy's construction, which had to be monitored or controlled by someone.   
  
"It just means the game won't end even if I die!" Tsumugi said cheerfully, "There are systems in place in case I die, and I don't really do a lot." She shrugged.   
  
Well, that sure didn't answer that question, but it was probably the best he would get out of her.   
  
"Okay, last thing," Rantaro looked Tsumugi dead in the eyes, seeing the pink dance off her irises and the light catch on her glasses, "did you know the whole loop thing was going to happen?"   
  
Tsumugi blinked slowly, once, twice, and straightened herself on her stool. She lifted a hand to her chest and went to fiddle with her orange ribbon, only the ribbon wasn't there. She lowered her hand and carefully folded it with the other in her lap.   
  
"No."   
  
\--   
  
Tsumugi sat on the edge of the armchair, her hands desperately grabbing at her hair, wondering if it was sleep deprivation that made her talk or something else.   
  
She wanted to sort out this stupid voice in the back of her mind that made her want to tell Rantaro everything, that made her feel so incredibly lonely in a room full of people, she wanted it to shut up.   
  
And yet, she can't, nothing she does will silence that voice. How can she run a successful killing game if she can't even get herself under control?   
  
She takes a deep breath and turns her gaze to the monitors, and then to the big one hidden in the wall behind the Motherkuma. It's displaying nothing but a signal error, just like it had ever since the loops began. None of her messages were going through, no one had contacted her, not a single outside force has told her anything, and Tsumugi was scared.   
  
Did they mean to cut contact? Did they leave her here to suffer until someone manages to end this? What if...   
  
Tsumugi's eyes widened, and her hands moved up to tug the ribbon from her hair, spilling it down her shoulders, down her back.   
  
She felt something drip down the back of her neck, but when she put a hand to the wound her fingers came away dry.   
  
The pink of the room grated on her, stabbing into her, and Tsumugi sped out the room holding an orange ribbon in one hand and her neck in the other.   
  
\--   
  
Rantaro lays in bed, his head spinning, and he thinks about Tsumugi.   
  
She didn't know. _She didn't know._   
  
Which meant this was going on without her permission, which meant this was beyond her control, and beyond his as well, and they wouldn't be able to stop it.   
  
There were other, more important parts of their conversation, of course (the whole wasteland thing was kind of concerning), but Rantaro's mind fixated on that one part. _Tsumugi didn't know._   
  
His eyes closed heavily, but behind his eyelids he could see someone just out of focus, mouthing 'no' over and over and over again.   
  
This was out of their control, someone more powerful than Tsumugi created the loop, for what? What was their goal, why would they do this? Why Rantaro and Tsumugi specifically? Surely there were other people more suited for this, someone who lived longer, who managed to make it past the first couple of days of the game, who didn't ruin everything they attempted to do.   
  
What if there wasn't a goal? 

Rantaro's breath hitched, and he pushed his head further into his pillow and to ignore the rising pressure behind his eyes.   
  
Somehow, he fell asleep in the cold of his room, his blood even colder and his stomach falling into a bottomless pit.   
  
\--   
  
_Rantaro opens his eyes to find himself standing in a courtroom._   
  
_It's similar to the trial grounds from the killing game, only with slightly different podiums. Instead of futuristic podiums made of metal, these ones are wooden and falling apart, crumbling into dust as Rantaro grazes his fingers over them._   
  
_Behind each podium is a grey portrait of someone, most of the faces blurred and unrecognizable. He sees pictures of Ryoma, Kokichi, Korekiyo, Gonta, and Angie to one side, facing eleven portraits of unknown people._   
  
_What scares him most are the portraits of himself and Tsumugi, covered in grey blood._   
  
_There's nothing else in the courtroom. No Monokuma, no Monokubs, no noise, not even Rantaro's footsteps as he walks around the room. The walls display static, and Rantaro would've welcomed the noise that normally came with static, but it remained silent. There's no color, only shades of grey and the static and as Rantaro looks at his hands he sees that they're grey too, no life in his skin at all._   
  
_The elevator out of the trial room simply didn't exist, and Rantaro found himself trapped down here with only himself and eighteen portraits of the dead for company._   
  
_He stood there for a while, begging himself to wake up and realize this was all a dream, pouding on the walls to stop the static that was killing his eyes. He didn't like being trapped, never has, and there's a part of his mind that says the walls are getting closer, that he's going to be here until he dies and no one will ever find his body because it doesn't exist._   
  
_His thoughts were too loud, but he couldn't actually make out any one distinct thought, just a jumble of words and phrases that flew by and never stuck._   
  
_Just as he was thinking this couldn't get worse, it did exactly that._   
  
_There was a flash, white and violent and Rantaro spun around to face the circle of podiums and saw pink._   
  
_The portraits were gone and replaced with bodies. Pink had burst forth, the only color in a sea of grey, making it stand out, bright and horrible._   
  
_Ryoma sat perched up on his podium, blood trickling from his mouth. Kokichi and Korekiyo lay not too far from each other, their heads bashed in and blood pouring onto the floor, creating a sickening puddle underneath their lifeless corpses. Gonta had two cuts in his neck, each gushing pink, his wide eyes unfocused and his glasses crooked on his nose. Angie was crumpled on the ground, grasping at her neck with a panicked face and a look of horror in her eyes._   
  
_Then began the people Rantaro didn't recognize. Their faces were still blurred, their clothes indistinct, and there was a prick at the back of Rantaro's mind but nothing came to him._   
  
_A boy rests on his stomach with bones twisting every direction, a pool of blood staining the floor. A young man sits behind him, tied to a stake and on fire, ashes at his feet. Then, a small girl grabs her neck like she's suffocating, eyes blown wide open and filled with tears, blood spilling form her eyes, her mouth. Next to her is a tall girl with vines wrapped around her body, pointed thorns stabbing into her and letting blood drips steadily onto her podium. Two girls lay on top of each other, the larger one with shards of glass in her throat from choking on them, blood splattered across her front and onto the girl beneath her, who had purple marks around her neck and a horribly broken arm. Not too far from them is a tall boy in pieces, a large pair of scissors by his side and his parts being used in an arts and crafts project of sorts. Behind the next podium, only a large pile of ashes and a charred bloody cloth remains, the next person being a boy crushed by a gavel, leaving nothing more than a pink stain on the ground. An unidentifiable body hangs from the ceiling, eyes gouged out and their body cut up. The final person is a tiny girl, barely Himiko's height, holding a stack of papers as she's stabbed through her neck with a pen._   
  
_He had avoided looking over at the place his own portrait had stood, but a flash of blue and green catches his eyes and he sees himself and Tsumugi, only not as he remembers her (or himself, for that matter). They're wearing unfamiliar clothes and Tsumugi's hair is braided up, and they're waving to the crowd of bodies as they walk away._   
  
_His own eyes flash with something unfamiliar, a mess of red, black, and white, and his own mouth moves and the first sound since this dream began slams into him._   
  
You wanted this killing game.   
  
_Tsumugi, or this vision of her, hits a button on Monokuma's podium as she passes, and they walk through a door that didn't exist before and aren't seen again._   
  
_The dead turn to look at the only Rantaro left, and they repeat that phrase over and over and over again._   
  
You wanted this killing game. You wanted this killing game. You wanted this killing game. You wanted this killing game.   
  
_Rantaro clutches at his ears and begs them to stop, but no sound comes from his mouth. If anything, all his attempts at begging only make the dead louder, their voices blending together to create a cacophony that sears into his mind._   
  
_He wants them to stop, to stop, to be quiet, to say_ anything _else, to shut up, to be quiet, to stop to stop to stop._

_The dead movement, make their way to his feet, clawing into his legs and dragging him down, down, down, down into fire and a broken ship and twelve faint voices._

Rantaro shoots awake in his bed, furiously grabbing at anything he can get his hands on, pulling his sheets to his chest and curling in on himself. He doesn't dare close his eyes again.   
  
The floor of his room is covered in bodies, and pink blood, and eyes that won't stop looking at him, accusing him of something he can only guess.   
  
He sees them, but not really. His mind is too far away, his ears ringing with only one phrase.   
  
_**You wanted this killing game.**_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> alternate chapter summaries: mugi doesnt know as much as she wants to and taro has a bad night


	10. save me from this lethal company

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> keep your fellow killing game participants close and your enemies closer

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i told myself i wouldnt post this until my speech for class was finished, so i finished it and then looked at my agenda and found out i have two other speeches due soon. hooray. but anyway if chapters are slower in updating its because midterm projects are slowly going on for me, and as much as i love this story class work is a bit more important
> 
> anyway! this is one of my favorite chapters!!! its also on the longer side but not much happens so i didnt want to break it up. it was just nice writing some lighter things for once.
> 
> in between trials and loops is always kinda tamer and i dont wanna dedicate too much time to that kinda thing (esp some of the upcoming parts, i might move quickly through those) but it was fun to write at least so!

Breakfast is a bit more tense than usual.   
  
Granted, Rantaro's "usual" is just the same breakfast repeated over and over again, and it's at a time when no one had died and no one had killed anyone, so no one had the traumatized look in their eyes of seeing a body then.   
  
This time, not only had they seen a body, but they'd watch someone get away with the murder. The first time this had happened, Ryoma had killed himself and his body had gone through the execution, so there was tension, but not as much. No one was thinking of who could snap next, betray the group, kill someone. Not to mention the voice that plays in the back of Rantaro's head constantly, ringing that awful phrase in his ears repeatedly.   
  
Rantaro didn't really want to think about what that phrase meant.

Now, Ryoma sat alone at the dining table eating slowly, clearly not interested in any of the conversations around him. Rantaro had walked in and slid into a seat near him, not too close but close enough to provide Ryoma some company if he wanted it. Ryoma just nodded to Rantaro, acknowledging the other's presence but making no attempt to talk.   
  
A sharp clink sounded from the other side of the table, and Rantaro turned his head a little faster than necessary.   
  
It was just Kaede, standing on her chair and tapping a spoon to her cup. She cleared her throat when she noticed everyone's attention had turned to her, "Uhm, I know things aren't great right now, and I know we're all a little on edge, but I think it's more important now to stick together and support one another! Things will only get worse if we let ourselves get torn apart by suspicion and doubt, and I know it's not easy to trust others but we should all try our best to stay as one big group! I'm going to do my best, okay, so everyone should, too! And, um," Her smile faltered, and her hands fell to her sides, "If anyone needs to talk, I'm here to listen, if you want. That's all I wanted to say."   
  
Kaede stepped down from her chair, and someone began slowly clapping from behind everyone. Rantaro expected to see Kokichi, clapping sarcastically with a snarky grin on his face, but the supreme leader was stood just to the side of the group with a calculating gaze. Instead, Rantaro twisted his body to see Monokuma and the Monokubs.   
  
"When the fuck did you get here?!" Miu screeched. Kaito screamed and scrambled to fuck behind someone, the closest person being Maki, who just sidestepped out of the way and had a bone-chilling glare on her face. Whether she was glaring at Monokuma or Kaito was unclear.   
  
"How very touching! You students are going to make little old me cry," Monokuma wiped a nonexistent tear from his eye, "It almost makes me feel bad about interrupting you all... Almost! I'm here for a beary important reason, so stop screaming and listen to me or you won't get your gifts!"   
  
Kokichi's eyes lit up, "Gifts?"   
  
"Yes, gifts! Your generous and loving headmaster has decided to give you some gifts for getting past the first murder! It's a shame we didn't get to hold a trial, though, those are the best part..."   
  
The Monokubs placed their items on the table, the exact same items from last time they'd made it this far. The red gem, hexagonal crank, old passport, and an ocarina, and Rantaro couldn't help but think about how last time they were here, Gonta and Angie were with them and Ryoma was dead.   
  
"What the-this is a bunch of shit!" Miu exclaimed, and various others agreed. Korekiyo picked up the old passport and began muttering inaudibly to himself, and Kokichi grabbed for the red gem when Miu stole it from right in front of him. The Monokubs disappeared, and Monokuma mumbled about ungrateful students before leaving as well.   
  
"Uh," Shuichi glanced around the room, "Should we make groups, or...?"   
  
Maki stormed off before anyone else could get a word in, "I want no part in any of this."   
  
"W-Wait!" Shuichi yelled.   
  
"I think groups would be fine, we could all cover more ground that way! Maybe these things are supposed to be used somewhere..." Kaede trailed off, picking up the crank and twisting it in her hands.   
  
Tsumugi picked up the ocarina and made her way to Rantaro's side.   
  
"Just to keep an eye on you," She smirked.   
  
Considering last time she had been dragged into a group by Angie, and Angie... wasn't here anymore, Rantaro guessed he should've seen this coming. He plastered on a friendly smile for appearances.   
  
"Are you sure you don't just like spending time with me?" He retorted.   
  
"You wish."   
  
"I absolutely do not."   
  
Kaede, who still held the crank, Shuichi and Kaito were a group again, lacking Maki this time but Kaito said he would try and find her as they were looking around.   
  
Tenko and Himiko were obviously together, the former looking more excited about the arrangement, and they had pulled Kirumi with them as well. Tenko looked as though she wanted to grab Tsumugi as well, but backed off when she saw Rantaro with her.   
  
Kokichi laughed at the idea of being in a group with Korekiyo, the "resident creep", and ran over to join Tsumugi and Rantaro, dragging Ryoma along with him to "cheer the sad man up a bit". Rantaro wasn't too fond of this group, if he was being honest.   
  
Korekiyo was left joining Miu and Kiibo at Kiibo's offer, definitely less than pleased with these groups.   
  
"Are you sure I cannot go alone...?" Korekiyo asked quietly, casting a forlorn glance at Miu.   
  
"It's safer in groups," Kaede reasoned, "That way we don't lose anyone! Besides, we should all learn to get along if we're gonna work together to get out of here!"   
  
"Yeah!" Kaito agreed, "But, uh, we should probably all meet up somewhere after we finish this, right?"   
  
"Right!" Shuichi nodded, "Uhm, how about meeting in the gym? We can discuss what we found..."   
  
Various consents and agreements were thrown out, and the groups were left on their own.   
  
Korekiyo shook his head in frustration, and after a short (but loud on Miu's part) arguement about which item to take he gingerly handed the passport to Kirumi's team, which left his team with the red gem that Miu had taken.   
  
Rantaro gave one more look at his makeshift group. Himself, the mastermind (and his partner in time loop hell), a former tennis player turned prisoner that had killed himself and who's body had been cut up by said mastermind in a previous loop, and a supreme leader and liar extraordinaire who had been killed in a previous loop... also by said mastermind. Hooray.   
  
Kokichi stayed off to the side, bouncing on his heels and glancing from Rantaro to Tsumugi and back again. If he noticed anything, he sure didn't mention it. Tsumugi stared back right into Kokichi's darting eyes, glasses glinting dangerously.   
  
Rantaro met Ryoma's eyes and the two knew this group was going to be a disaster.   
  
"We should get to it," Ryoma stated, "No point in wasting time."   
  
"Yeah Shirogane! Stop wasting time!" Kokichi got a hold of Rantaro's hand (an extremely familiar gesture, really) and pulled him out of the dining hall. Ryoma put another candy cigarette in his mouth and followed, shaking his head, and Tsumugi did the same when he offered one to her.   
  
"This can probably be used somewhere outside... I think I remember seeing music notes on a stone not too far from the entrance," Tsumugi noted. She knew exactly where it was used, even if she wasn't the mastermind she had been in the ocarina group before... with Angie.   
  
"Then we'll look outside." Ryoma nodded.   
  
"You _think_ you remember seeing music notes? Are you just trying to waste our time again? I'm a very busy person you know!"   
  
Tsumugi spluttered at Kokichi's accusation, "Of course not! I'm plainly not sure, is all!"   
  
"What is someone like you busy with? We're all stuck here, nothing to do."   
  
"Of course _you_ don't have anything to do, Hoshi, you spend the days being sad and moping!"   
  
Ryoma huffed, "Can't say that's a lie."   
  
"Well obviously, I never lie!"   
  
"I've never heard anything less true," Rantaro shook his head.   
  
"How rude, Amami! You'll be speaking to my lawyers, hope you're happy~" Kokichi skipped just ahead of the group, still in earshot but unable to see them without turning back.   
  
"You have lawyers?" Tsumugi mumbled.   
  
"Oh yeah, I'm definitely happy," Rantaro gave a genuine smile for what felt like the first time in forever, "It's worth speaking to lawyers."   
  
" _Teasing me_ is worth spending hours on end talking to some dumb guys in suits? Wow, you must really love me, Amami, I'm impressed."   
  
"Love is definitely one word you could use, sure."   
  
Ryoma said something about lawyers being annoying under his breath, and Rantaro chuckled. Ryoma looked up at the green-haired boy, obviously not expecting to be heard, then moved his head back down and laughed a little too.   
  
Rantaro felt warmth blossom in his chest, and immediately squashed it down. He couldn't make friends, couldn't get attached to people, because who knows when they would die, or kill, or when everything would reset and they wouldn't remember a thing about you.   
  
They made their way outside and towards the pool entrance as Kokichi made an offhanded insult towards anime and Tsumugi furiously defended it.   
  
"-So much better than you could ever plainly believe! It's a beautiful art form that creates wonderful characters-"   
  
"Yeah, yeah, whatever, check this out!" Kokichi stole the ocarina from Tsumugi's hands and began playing a tuneless melody.   
  
"No, no, no! You have to play the song on the rock! It's from a video game, give that here!" Tsumugi went to take back the instrument when it disintegrated in Kokichi's hands and the leaves in front of the pool entrance fell away.   
  
Tsumugi gave a short exhale in annoyance, "That's cool and all, but I plainly wanted to hear the song..."   
  
"I'm sure Akamatsu could play it for you, if you asked," Rantaro suggested, heading towards the new entrance, "Later, of course."   
  
"..." Tsumugi hesitated for a moment, and Kokichi stopped and examined her before continuing on, unbothered. She perked right back up, smiling brightly even if her eyes had darkened, "Yeah, I'll be sure to ask! I don't know if she'd want to play for someone as plain as me, though."   
  
"Has there always been an entrance here?" Ryoma asked, "Feel like I should've noticed it before. Maybe I just have a long way to go."   
  
"I always knew there was something off about those leaves!" Kokichi added, "They were just toooo suspicious, even in this wierd school."   
  
"I don't blame you for not noticing, I didn't either." Rantaro said, hoping Kokichi wouldn't notice anything. While that wasn't technically a lie, it wasn't the whole truth either.   
  
Ryoma hummed, snapping his current candy cigarette in half and popping it all in his mouth.   
  
Tsumugi pushed the doors open carefully before Kokichi passed her and threw them open, showing the pool in all its glory.   
  
"Well, that's not something I expected to see here," Ryoma said quietly, eyes scanning the pool rules in the corner.   
  
"Wow!" Kokichi exclaimed, "How lame is this!"   
  
"Hey, it's not that bad..." Tsumugi said, dejected.   
  
Rantaro realized with a bit of shock that he'd never actually seen the pool before. He knew it was here through his survivor perk, and he'd heard about it from Tsumugi's group when they had opened it up in whatever loop that was, but otherwise he'd never been in the pool room. Their was a window in the top corner, leading to what Rantaro knew was Ryoma's lab, and another window on the other side of the room leading to the gym. Lounge chairs sat on the poolside, looking unreasonably comfortable for the situation, but the pool itself didn't seem to have a lot of water in it.   
  
"I bet if I pushed Hoshi in he wouldn't be able to get out." Kokichi whispered not so quietly to Rantaro.   
  
"Ouma, that would be really mean."   
  
"Yeah but it would be funny."   
  
"Ouma."   
  
"It wouldn't even be that funny." Ryoma grumbled from beside the pool rules.   
  
"Don't take my word for it, but I plainly think the pool is just deep! It actually has a lot of water in it, but because it's so deep it doesn't seem like a lot," Tsumugi explained, then added "It could still be used as the setting for a swimming anime, I'm sure."   
  
"Huh." Ryoma pointed at the pool rules, "You can't use the pool at night."   
  
"That makes sense, I guess. You wouldn't want anyone drowning on their own," Rantaro nodded, reading over the rules. A bunch of them were really sarcastic, saying things like "don't accidentally break your leg by the pool" or "don't die in the pool".   
  
"Oh yeah, I doubt Monokuma, the headmaster of the killing game, would want us to die alone because of something stupid like drowning during a late night swim." Kokichi said sardonically.   
  
"Don't joke about those things, kid." Ryoma frowned and turned his gaze upwards to the window above the room. "Wonder where that leads."   
  
"We'll find out when everyone meets up in the gym, won't we?" Rantaro reminded the former tennis player.   
  
"Yeah, I guess you're right."   
  
"Speaking of which, we should probably start heading back, right? Unless there's anything else here, but it doesn't look like it," He said, looking over to where Kokichi had opened a side door and was buried in deflated pool floaties and other fun pool toys, Tsumugi standing to the side and laughing heartily, clutching her stomach. Ryoma looks at the two fondly, his gaze a little lonely, but he nods and agrees.   
  
That other world, the one where they're all normal kids in a normal school able to get along and be friends with each other without the looming threat of death and betrayal, pokes at the back of Rantaro's mind and he decides that it's probably time to go back to the gym. He helped pull Kokichi out of the pool toys (the supreme leader had gone mysteriously limp and lost the use of his legs, apparently, and insisted that he needed help), and Tsumugi collects herself and takes another candy cigarette from Ryoma as they leave the pool behind.   
  
\--   
  
Nothing new is presented in the gym, and the flashback light is the same as ever (horrible and headache-inducing), and Rantaro was about to leave to find some sort of exit to this god forsaken academy when Kaede calls out to everyone. Well, not everyone, Maki had slipped out immediately and Kaito had gone after her and had yet to come back.   
  
"Everyone, wait!" She called again, her hands clenched tightly into fists and a determined look in her eyes, "I want to say something before we all leave!"   
  
"Well, what is it, flat tits? Don't waste our time, some of us have places to be, people to meet."   
  
"No one is meeting you later, Iruma, no one would dare," Korekiyo muttered, clearly still unhappy about spending any amount of time with Miu.   
  
"Okay, well," Kaede started, "I was thinking we give the death road of despair another try!"   
  
Instantly, protests sprang up around the room, mainly from Kokichi.   
  
"No, no, no, wait! Please hear me out!" She pleaded, holding on to her backpack straps and raising her head with a confidence Rantaro wished he could have. "I don't want to force anyone to come with me, so I thought I'd mention it just in case anyone wanted to try, too! If not, that's fine, I'll make sure everyone knows what's at the end when we get there! I just thought... since Yonaga left that way..."   
  
Himiko's face drops slightly at Angie's name, and Tenko tried to reassure her with a comforting hand on the mage's shoulder.   
  
Shuichi nodded from Kaede's side, "I'd join you for a while..."   
  
"Well," Miu groaned, "I don't really wanna go through that shit again, but if we can get out... eh, fuck it! I'll bless you fuckers with my presence."   
  
"Tenko will try as well! Tenko will make sure all of the girls are okay in the tunnels!" She looked expectantly towards Himiko, but the small girl didn't say anything. Instead she was biting her lip and wringing her hands together.   
  
"Nyeh, I think... I think I wanna go take a nap... I need to recharge my mana and going through the tunnels is a pain... especially without any magic..."   
  
"O-oh, okay..." Tenko stammered, then perked up, "Tenko will get to the end for Yumeno! She will make sure no one leaves without her!"   
  
Himiko gave Tenko a small smile, "Thanks Chabashira." Tenko was positively elated, beeming from ear to ear and only slightly red in the face.   
  
Eventually, Kaede ended up with a group of Shuichi, Miu, Tenko, Kirumi, Kiibo, Kokichi (though Rantaro guessed the purple-haired boy was just in it to warch everyone fail), and Rantaro himself, who wanted to check out the tunnels again anyway.   
  
Korekiyo simply shook his head and said he didn't see anything coming from this, and Ryoma said he was grateful for the offer but didn't think the tunnels would be successful without any sort of machine or aid. Tsumugi looked like she wanted to tag along for a minute, but ultimately stood back and watched as the group passed.   
  
Along the way to the tunnels, they met Kaito by the dormitories.   
  
"Hey! What are you guys doing?"   
  
"We were gonna give the tunnels another try! I really do think we can get through them this time!" Kaede answered enthusiastically.   
  
"Oh, damn, I'll come with you, Akamatsu!" Kaito jumped up from his place on the side of the wall, "Of course I'll go with you, if there's even the smallest chance we can get out of here then it's worth working towards it."   
  
"Exactly," Kaede nodded furiously while Kokichi faked retching just in front of Rantaro, too far behind those two for them to notice.   
  
Inside the death road of despair, Miu checked over the walls again to look for any sort of control pannels, but came to the same conclusion Rantaro had. There were no such devices anywhere on this side of the tunnel.   
  
"I could probably make something for this.." She muttered almost inaudibly over the chatter of the others, "Some sort of controller or something... something that shorts all the electronics... an EMP or something..."   
  
Miu walked up to the edge of the safe zone ans sized up the traps, "Yeah, that could work... take a long ass time but with enough materials..."   
  
"Uh, Iruma? I wouldn't get much closer until we have a plan." Kaito called. Miu's neck popped as she quickly twisted her head to face him, no longer deep in thought.   
  
"Yeah, no shit, fuckwad, I'm not going anywhere! God, lost my fucking train of thought, asshole, I'm busy over here."   
  
"Busy thinking about porn, maybe." Kokichi snickered. Miu flipped him off.   
  
"That wasn't even a good joke..." Kiibo said.   
  
"Excuuuse me, Kiiboy, all of my jokes are fantastic, get with the program!" Then Kokichi started laughing, "Get it, programming, cause you're a robot?"   
  
"Hey," Kiibo said, shoulders drooping, "That's not a very funny joke, either. I'm just like the rest of you!"   
  
"Except your no~ot!"   
  
"Okay!" Kaede clapped her hands to get everyone's attention, "I think we should take it slow this time! We all made a lot of mistakes when we rushed through it, so we should try taking our time and being careful! I'll go first, everyone can follow me!"   
  
Kaede positioned herself at the entrance of the tunnels, gently pushing Miu behind her, "I think we'll get it this time, so please work hard with me!"   
  
Everyone got ready, and Kaede started moving forward, pushing the gate open and dodging the first few obstacles somewhat easily.   
  
For a while, Rantaro thought they were doing well. Sure, Kokichi had "accidentally" gotten captured by a cage and sent back to the beginning, and Kirumi had underestimated a jump and tripped into a bomb, rendering her unconscious and having to be dragged back to the start by a panel in the ground, but otherwise they were doing alright! The walls had started to change, from old sewer tunnels made of concrete to something more electrical and complex, which Rantaro thought was a good enough sign of progress. The traps were getting more and more aggressive, too, and more violent, which Rantaro thought was another good sign they were getting closer to... the end? the exit? whatever it was that was at the end of the tunnel.   
  
Then, Tenko tripped a bomb and it threw both her and Rantaro into a wall, and Rantaro's head hit the wall hard and he blacked out.   
  
\--   
  
"-ami! Amami!"   
  
Groaning and blinking dark spots out of his eyes, Rantaro woke up.   
  
For a moment, he was worried he had died again, and the loop had reset, and he had to learned anything useful. But... this wasn't his bed, and there was a draft coming from his side and a hum of electricity that didn't existed in his dorm, and someone was speaking near him. When Rantaro looked upwards and blinked his vision clear, he was met with bright purple eyes and spiky purple hair and a galaxy print jacket.   
  
"Amami! There we go, careful, Toujo brought some water down if you need any," Kaito pushed a bottle of water towards Rantaro. It was obviously cold, the sides fogged up with condescension, and Rantaro picked it up and drank it all before gasping for air and clearing this throat.   
  
"We were really worried, bro, you and Chabashira went flying and we thought the worst had happened and- shit, man, I felt so bad-"   
  
"Momota, It's fine," Rantaro coughed. His head was still spinning and his back was a little sore, and the blow to his head reminded him of seberal of his past deaths. An unwelcome pang of pain made waves through his head, and for a second he was in the library, and for a second he was in the hallway in the girl's bathroom, and then he was back in the tunnel entrance lying next to Kaito, _alive_.   
  
"Is Chabashira okay?" He asked, pushing those thoughts to the side.   
  
"Yeah, yeah, she's fine, just a little scrapped up. She didn't hit her head as hard as you do, you were the only one who passed out. We had to take her back to the entrance, though, she couldn't really walk. Toujo's looking over her now." He gestured to the side, where Rantaro saw Kirumi fussing over Tenko, bandaging her leg with something that looked suspiciously like actual bandages. Rantaro wondered where she found actual medical supplies, there weren't any in the warehouse as far as he knew. Maybe Kirumi's lab had them? She would probably need to have access to some supplies just in case she needed them while working as a maid, so maybe... Or maybe Maki's lab? A child caregiver would probably need bandages just in case as well, but Rantaro was pretty sure that wasn't Maki's real talent.   
  
Regardless, Kirumi noticed him staring and smiled, "I'm glad to see you're awake. Are you feeling alright? Can I do anything for you?"   
  
Rantaro would've shaken his head if his head didn't feel like it was splitting open (again), "No, thank you, I'm okay. How's Chabashira?"   
  
"She's doing alright. Alive, at the very least." Kirumi motioned to the Aikido master's leg, "Unfortunately, her leg was damaged in the blast. It's burned badly and I believe it is bruised quite badly as well, if not broken. I am no expert, but I think some rest would do her well."   
  
"Tenko will not rest!" Tenko cried from her place in the floor, "Tenko promised she would reach the end for Yumeno, she won't break her promise! Tenko can't give up now, she's had worse injuries!" She make to stand, but the moment she put pressure on her injured leg her knees buckled and she fell back down, "That meant nothing! Tenko is stronger than this, she can prove it!"   
  
"I can see that you're determined, Chabashira, but continuing on like this would only make your injuries worse. I'm sure Yumeno will understand, she would rather know you're alright." Kirumi consoled Tenko, gingerly tightening the bandages and finishing up with her leg.   
  
"Tenko... Tenko understands! Yumeno is very understanding like that, Tenko just doesn't want to disappoint her."   
  
"I understand, Chabashira. Yumeno will as well. I doubt she would be happy knowing you were hurt because of a promise you made to her."   
  
Tenko nodded and winced as Kirumi set her leg down, and then glared at Kaito and Rantaro, "Hey, degenerates! Tenko can still use her Neo-Aikido on you, so stop staring!"   
  
Rantaro quickly averted his eyes and noticed the remaining grouo members returning from the tunnels. Kokichi was nowhere to be found, and likely left as soon as he became bored, but Kaede and Kiibo brightened when they saw the two relatively alright. Funny, they were missing someone...   
  
"Where's Iruma?" Rantaro asked.   
  
"She had an idea and left to go to her lab!" Kiibo answered.   
  
"Did you get anywhere?" Kaito asked, looking deep into the tunnels behind Kaede, who just sighed.   
  
"No, we didn't get any further. It's really tough, but I think if we give it a couples more tries-"   
  
"I don't think any more attempts would be wise." Kiibo interjected, "We're all tired, and some of us are injured. Maybe we should try again tomorrow."   
  
Kaede frowned ever so slightly, "I want to give it another go. I'm not asking anyone to come with me, I just think, maybe this time, I can do it!"   
  
"I'll go with you," Kaito stood up and went to stand next to Kaede.   
  
Rantaro sort of wanted to go with them, but when he attempted to push himself up Kirumi gave him a look that clearly said "if you even so much as _try_ to join them I'll knock you out and put you on bedrest myself". He shivered under her gaze and decided to stay put.   
  
Kaede and Kaito dissappeared into the tunnel, and Rantaro heard bombs explode and cages clash against the ground as he closed his eyes and tried to stop the pounding in his head.   
  
\--   
  
Kaito and Kaede came back slightly worse for wear, and immediately gave it another try. They went in and out and in and out and didn't reach the end. Kaito stepped aside and coughed harshly into his elbow, his back facing the group, and Kaede took a glance around and pursed her lips.   
  
"We should probably call it a night..." She said, casting a worried look at Kaito as he returned.   
  
"I'm definitely up for trying some more!"   
  
"I know, Momota, but I think we should all get a good rest and try again later. We'll be able to do better if we're well rested and feeling better!"   
  
Kirumi helped Tenko stand, one arm under the other girl's arms to give her support, and Kiibo offered a hand to Rantaro to help him up. Black spots danced at the edge of his vision when he stood up, and his head pounded, but he managed to stay upright (even if he was holding on tightly to Kiibo's arm to stabilize himself).   
  
Slowly, they all made their way out if the tunnels, Tenko needing a little extra help to climb the ladder with one leg and Kaito staying back to cough some more. His throat sounded awfully dry.   
  
The moon shone above them, and Rantaro pried open his dorm room and collapsed in bed.   
  
He was fast asleep when someone-- or, something-- popped into his room and left another monopad on the table.


End file.
